From The Pulpit of DUMC

#74. Rev. Shane Page - June 28

This Sunday our appointed gospel reading picks up where last week’s reading left off. After telling his disciples that they should have no fear of those who can kill the body—for there is no death in God and the fear of death should never order the followers of Jesus—Jesus advances this week true cost of following him, saying, “Whoever loves mother or father or children more than me is not worthy of my; and whoever does not take up his or her cross is not worthy of me.” This Sunday let’s rise...

#73. Page-Turner Episode 7/June 25, 2020

This week on Page - Turner, Shane, Kevin and Karen are all back together! They discuss prayer - what it is, why it's important to pray daily, and some tips on how to pray. Karen also shares a story about her dog and Shane has a run in with an antelope. If you have a topic or question for future episodes, please contact Karen Payne.

#72. June 21 - Rev. Shane Page

This Sunday the appointed gospel has Jesus, encouraging his followers before they set off for mission, saying, “Do not fear those who can kill the body. Fear rather him who can destroy both soul and body in Hades.” This week let’s talk about fears, our current fears, and put, however we can, our fears in place. Fear is a good but only when rightly ordered. Let’s talk about how to rightly order our fears this Sunday.

#71. Page-Turner Episode 6/June 18, 2020

This week on Page - Turner Kevin is back and Karen interviews him about his calling and what it's like being the Pastor for Music and Worship at DUMC.

#70. June 14 - Rev. Shane Page

This Sunday in worship we will reflect on Jesus’s words, “I am the bread of life…those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have life in them.” So scandalous and graphic were his words in the context of John 6 that most of his followers abandoned following him in this moment. Still the Lord insisted: to share in his eternal life requires that we consume him. Jesus is true food indeed. This Sunday let us hunger for him.

#69. Page-Turner Podcast. Episode 5/June 11, 2020

This week on Page - Turner Shane gives an update on reopening the church and Karen interviews Shane about his calling and what it's like being a pastor. If you have a topic or question for future episodes, please contact Karen Payne.

#68. Trinity Sunday; June 7 - Rev. Shane Page

This Sunday we come to one of final great liturgical Sundays of the year until Christ the King Sunday in November: Trinity Sunday. Each year after the Sunday of Pentecost the Church designates the following Sunday as a time to reflect on the God revealed in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus: that the true God is Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Far from an abstract doctrine best left for academics to ponder, the Church's dogma that God is Trinity has vast implication...

#67. Page-Turner Podcast. Episode 4/June 4, 2020

This week on Page - Turner we discuss Shane's statement regarding the events associated with the death of George Floyd and how we can change our ideologies; Shane also explains the traffic light analogy for returning to church

#66. Pentecost Sunday; May 31 - Rev. Shane Page

This Sunday we come to yet another great day in the Christian year: the Sunday of Pentecost. Pentecost, which means fifty days, and which in the Christian calendar concludes the great fifty days of the Easter season, commemorates the sending of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples, animating them for their mission, giving birth to the Church. This Sunday we’ll recall a few important features of the story and reflect on why we should pray for a New Pentecost today.

#65. Page-Turner Podcast. Episode 3/May 28, 2020

This week on Page - Turner we discuss deeper about Ascension Sunday, some current quarantine trends and Shane provides another update when we might be worshiping in person again. If you have a topic or question for future episodes, please contact Karen Payne.

#64. Ascension Sunday; May 24 - Rev. Shane Page

This Sunday we will commemorate yet another high holy day of the Christian year, the Sunday of Christ’s Ascension. Let’s revisit this great moment in the life of our Lord and remind ourselves what the event truly meant to the disciples and what it truly means for us today. Because Christ has ascended into heaven, we should possess within ourselves a lively, confident hope.

#63. Page-Turner Podcast. Episode 2/May 21, 2020

This week on Page - Turner we discuss the effects quarantine has had on us, confirmation, the trend of young adults leaving the church, and answer a viewer's question on when we might be returning back to worship in person. (Please note Shane's statement regarding returning in June was before the Bishop's recommendation of postponing worshiping together in person until after June 30. We will be following the Bishop's guidelines)

#62. The Sixth Sunday of Easter; May 17 - Rev. Shane Page

The Sunday, the sixth in the Easter season, we will continue to reflect on the final words Jesus speaks to his disciples before his passion and resurrection. Last week the Lord said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." This week we will pick up where we left off. Jesus continues comforting his friends, saying in this week's lesson (John 14:15-21), "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." Let's reflect on the beauty of this sentence alone and consider the relationship between love...

#60. Page-Turner Podcast. Episode 1/May 14, 2020

Join our Pastors, Shane and Kevin, and our Director of Communications, Karen Payne, as they discuss Kevin's recent accomplishment and how we are reaching out to the congregation to worship during this pandemic.

#61. Page-Turner Podcast. Episode 1/May 14, 2020

Join our Pastors, Shane and Kevin, and our Director of Communications, Karen Payne, as they discuss Kevin's recent accomplishment and how we are reaching out to the congregation to worship during this pandemic.

#60. The Fifth Sunday of Easter; May 10 - Rev. Shane Page

This Sunday—the fifth Sunday of the Easter season—we will reflect on the appointed passage this week from John 14:1-12. In these verses, and hours before his death, Jesus begins laying out for his disciples the sheer mystery of his divine nature. It could take weeks to explore all the marvels hidden in these sentences. We will therefore limit ourselves to considering our Lord’s glorious response to Thomas, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” In these words rests our own confidence in the...

#59. The Fourth Sunday of Easter - Rev. Shane Page

This Sunday, the fourth Sunday of the Easter season, bears the title “Shepherd Sunday.” Based on the appointed gospel lesson for the day (John 10:1-10), we will spend a few minutes focusing on Jesus Christ as our Good Shepherd. In this Sunday’s lesson Jesus says is he the gate of the sheep and the guardian of the sheep who will protect his flock from the thief who comes only to steal, to kill, and to destroy. We will spend a few minutes contemplating this imagery and the good news it means fo...

#58. The Third Sunday of Easter - Rev. Shane Page

This week we will take a look at the appointed gospel for this Sunday from Luke 24: Jesus’s appearance to two disciples walking to the village of Emmaus. It is one of the most beloved stories in all the gospels. There is, however, important lessons contained within its winsome sentences, which I will hope to draw out this week. Have your bible ready and we will walk through the story together, pondering a few of its themes.

#57. The Third Sunday of Easter - Rev. Jim Humphries

In our online worship service this weekend, we will look at how the disciples spent their time in the hours and days following Jesus’ emergence from the tomb. While Easter is a time of great joy and celebration for us today, those initial hours after Jesus’ resurrection brought fear and trepidation to his closest followers. We read in John’s gospel how Jesus returned to his friends to address their feelings of anxiety. How might Jesus reach us today in our own times of fear and uncertainty? R...

#57. The Second Sunday of Easter - Rev. Jim Humphries

In our online worship service this weekend, we will look at how the disciples spent their time in the hours and days following Jesus’ emergence from the tomb. While Easter is a time of great joy and celebration for us today, those initial hours after Jesus’ resurrection brought fear and trepidation to his closest followers. We read in John’s gospel how Jesus returned to his friends to address their feelings of anxiety. How might Jesus reach us today in our own times of fear and uncertainty? R...

#56. Easter Sunday - Rev. Shane Page

#55. Rev. Shane Page - Fifth Sunday of Lent

For the fifth Sunday of Lent, the church appoints as the gospel reading on the great tales in the Gospel of John: the raising of Lazarus in chapter 11. This Sunday I will make a few observations about this story and how it may very well be a timely word for our current situation.

#54. Be Thou My Vision - Rev. Shane Page

This Sunday we will worship together online. The live stream will begin at 9:30am. We have, for obvious reasons, put on hiatus our Lenten sermon series on the seven deadly sins and the seven life-giving virtues. This Sunday and for the next few Sundays we will revisit the appointed readings of the week. The appointed reading for this week concerns Jesus’s healing of the blind man in John chapter 9. What we will find in this passage is a great spiritual truth and perhaps even a word of consola...

#53. The Deadly Sins: Sloth - Rev. Shane Page

This Sunday we will press on in our sermon series on the seven deadly sins (and the seven life-giving virtues!). This week we will discuss what may be the most misunderstood of the seven vices: Sloth. Recall once again that all the vices become vices through ongoing habits. A vice is the end result of habitual sinful acts. Once something becomes a habit, it shapes our character until we simply do it without thinking about it. We are, in many ways, the sum total of all our habits. That's why...

#52. The Deadly Sins: Greed - Rev. Shane Page

This Sunday we continue our study on the seven deadly sins. This week we come to the fourth capital vice on the list: Greed. Jesus has more to say about greed than any other dysfunction in the life of the soul. Yet for every vice there is, as we have seen, an opposite virtue whose graces can offset the vice's influence. There is hope and good news as always, but swimming against the tide of greed does take effort, discipline, and commitment. This week let's dig in to the vice of Greed so that...

#51. The Deadly Sins: Anger - Rev. Jim Humphries

This Sunday in worship, we will continue our sermon series on the Seven Deadly Sins, looking specifically at the sin of Wrath. Everyone gets angry; even Jesus, as we will hear more about on Sunday. But what is it that makes our anger a sin before God; and is it always? And what is the remedy for our anger? How do we live in a world that is so filled with anger, hatred and division? Read Matthew 5: 21-26 and Ephesians 4: 25-32 to see how Jesus and Paul address the topic of anger, and join us S...

#50. The Deadly Sins: Envy - Rev. Alexis Coleman

#49. The Deadly Sins: Pride - Rev. Shane Page

This Sunday we will begin a new sermon series—just before and in time for Lent, which starts on February 26, on what church tradition calls the seven deadly or capital vices. There is no one particular section in the Bible that catalogues these seven vices on a page, but the Scriptures do refer to them or (at least alludes to them) throughout: pride, envy, wrath, greed, sloth, gluttony, and lust. These seven predispositions constitute the soil from which grows all kinds of dysfunction, be it ...

#48. Everyday Peacemaking - Rev. Alexis Coleman

In a world that seems to becoming more fractured daily, how can the followers of the Prince of Peace be counter-cultural? Can Jesus’ disciples make any real difference in our world or is it too late? What price are we willing to pay for following the way of Jesus?This Sunday we complete our sermon series on the Beatitudes as we think about the peacemakers and those who are persecuted for their righteousness. See you in worship!

#47. Blessed Are the Merciful...

This Sunday we will come to the penultimate sermon in our series on the Beatitudes. Like last week, we will consider two more of Jesus’s sayings that describe the happy soul: Happy are the merciful, for the will obtain mercy, and happy are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. As I said before, Jesus speaks in the indicative mood in each of these sayings. He’s hardly prescribing steps to become merciful or pure in heart. He’s simply declaring that those possessed of a merciful, pure hear...

#46. Blessed Are The Meek and Discontended - Rev. Shane Page

This Sunday our sermon series on the Beatitudes of Jesus in Matthew's gospel continues. We will consider two of the sayings of Jesus this week: blessed are the meek and blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Like all the beatitudes, and most of the teachings of Jesus, these sayings likewise overturn our expectations and reconfigure our vision of the world.

#45. Happy Are the Tearful - Rev. Shane Page

This week we continue our reflection on the Beatitudes of Jesus in the gospel of Matthew. This Sunday we will reflect on Jesus's second pronouncement. Blessed or "Happy" are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Once again we find a strange, counter-intuitive definition of happiness (at least according to our culture). Mourning as the road to happiness? Really? What might Jesus mean here? Why is grief a means to happiness, according to Jesus? Let's think on it this Sunday.

#44. #Blessed - Rev. Shane Page

This Sunday we will launch a new sermon series during which we will ponder the Beatitudes of Jesus as recalled by the gospel of Matthew. Think of how our world believes we will find lasting happiness. Now consider how Jesus assures us we will find happiness (Matthew 5:1-12). This Sunday we will reflect on Jesus’s first step to happiness: Happy are the poor in spirit. What does this mean? What was Jesus’s intention behind saying it? Let’s think on these things this week.

#43. The Starting Point - Rev. Shane Page

This Sunday in worship we will continue to follow the church's worship calendar and commemorate the second high Sunday of the year (the first being last Sunday, Epiphany): The feast of the Baptism of the Lord. It is the moment where it all began for our Lord (at least concerning his ministry): his baptism in the Jordan River. What went under those waters was the Son of God. What arose from those waters was the Son of God in mission, empowered as he was to preach the imminence of the kingdom o...

#42. The Distraction of the Palace

This Sunday we will follow the traditional liturgical cycle and observe the last day of the Christmas season, Epiphany Sunday. Every year on Epiphany the lectionary cycle has us revisit the story of those enigmatic stargazers from the East, the Magi, commonly referred to as the wise men. This Sunday let’s see what other lessons they can teach us in the new year awaiting us.

#41. Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols

This service has its roots in late 19th century England. It has been made famous by the choir of King's College, Cambridge, who has sung this service every Christmas Eve since 1918. The music changes every year, but the readings remain the same. The readings tell us the story of God's plan for salvation for us beginning with Adam and Eve and continuing until the coming of Christ. It is our hope that you will find the joy of Christmas within your hearts as we lead the familiar carols of the se...

#40. Redemption Song - Rev. Shane Page

This Sunday we will end our sermon series on the central figure of Advent next to Jesus, Mary his mother. This week will conclude things with a stroll through her great song of victory traditionally called the Magnificat. Subversive? Yes! Nevertheless, it remains fraught with good news, previewing as it does what Jesus will make his ministry about. Reflect on it this weekend in preparation for Sunday.

#39. The Return of the King - Rev. Shane Page

This Sunday we will continue our sermon series on Mary the Mother of Jesus as Luke’s gospel presents her. Last week we reflected on the story of the Annunciation, that is, the Announcement by the angel Gabriel that Mary, filled with grace, would be the mother of the Lord. This Sunday we will come to Act Two: Mary’s visit to Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-45), the latter being the mother of John the Baptist, the one whose preaching would prepare the way for the ministry of Jesus. On the one hand, it rea...

#38. The Shape of Discipleship - Rev. Shane Page

This Sunday we will begin a new sermon series on the central figure—next to our Lord—of the Advent season: Mary the Mother of Jesus. We will walk through the biblical account of Mary as Luke’s gospel presents her in his opening chapters, starting first with the Annunciation (this Sunday), then with the Visit of Mary to Elizabeth (the next week), and then, finally, we will conclude our study with Mary’s song of victory better known as the Magnificat. You can study all these passages by perusin...

#37. Signs of the Kingdom - Rev. Alexis Coleman

In worship this Sunday we celebrate the final Sunday of the Christian year, which is called Christ the King Sunday. As we fill the chancel area with our Harvest Procession bags, we’ll be thinking about the signs of the kingdom that are all around us every day. The text, Luke 23: 33-43, is one that we hear most often on Good Friday. As you prepare for worship, ponder what the text says about the Christ the King and how his kingdom is already here.

#36. Unwanted Saviors - Rev. Shane Page

This week we end our series on the parables of Jesus unique to Luke’s gospel. This Sunday we will revisit what we know—and even pop culture knows—as the parable of the Good Samaritan. Long thought to be a parable of do-gooding and example-setting, let’s try to reframe some of this story and see it from another vantage point. We might find it’s really the story of our salvation.

#35. Generosity. Guaranteed. - Rev. Shane Page

This Sunday we resume our sermon series on the parables of Jesus unique to Luke's Gospel. This week Jesus spins a yarn about a man who experienced, in ancient terms, a hugely profitable year and then things, especially the man's character, degenerated from there. "You fool," the voice of the Lord says in response. What made the man foolish in Jesus's reading? What's the good news of this great parable? Let's consider it this Sunday. One more thing: Our Commit. Give. Grow. campaign culmina...

#34. Committed - Rev. Shane Page

This Sunday we come to one of the highest days in the Christian year. All Saints Sunday is a day of poetry more than prose as we consider our calling as Christians and commemorate those members of DUMC who have entered the church triumphant since last year. Come this Sunday giving thanks for the saints in your life who have pointed you in the direction of heaven, the people whom you still love but see no more. Each week we profess we believe in the communion of saints. What a gift to know all...

#33. It's A Trap! - Rev. Shane Page

This week we continue our sermon series on the parables of Jesus found only in the Gospel of Luke. This week we will visit the story Jesus told regarding two people who went to church one Sabbath morning, the first an upstanding and moral member of religious society, the second a downright scoundrel (Luke 18:9-14). The zinger? The scoundrel went home a better friend of God. Let’s be very careful of reading this parable without difficulty or controversy. For this parable has traps embedded a...

#32. Living Faith - Rev. Linda Zastovnik

Professing faith is a lifelong response to the call of God, gift of grace and inclusion in the church as the body of Christ and witness to the coming kingdom of God. But, what is faith? * Faith is the basic orientation and commitment of our whole being - a matter of heart and soul. * Faith is grounding our lives in the living God as revealed especially in Jesus Christ. It's both a gift we receive within the Christian community and a choice we make. * Faith is trusting in God and relying on G...

#31. Getting What We Want - Rev. Shane Page

This Sunday in worship we will start a new sermon series in which we will focus each week—aside from All Saints Sunday--on a parable of Jesus found only in Luke’s gospel. This week we will examine the harrowing (Lucan) parable of Lazarus and the rich man. Jesus pulls no punches with this one. What is its point? What is the good news? This Sunday let’s reflect on it together and hear what the Lord wishes to say.

#30. The Good Shepherd and World Communion - Rev. Alexis Coleman

This weekend in worship we celebrate World Communion Sunday. Christian unity, symbolized through the act of Communion, is the focal point of World Communion Sunday. The day was founded by a Presbyterian pastor in 1933. The concept spread slowly, but during WWII the spirit of the day caught hold as people were trying to hold the world together. It emphasized that we are one in the Spirit. As you prepare for worship, please read Psalm 23 and John 10:1-10. These texts tell us about the Lord as...

#29. Sibling Rivalry - Rev. Shane Page

This Sunday we will conclude our quick tour through the book of Genesis by reflecting on the longest story in Genesis’s 50 chapters: the story of Joseph, youngest and favorite son of the patriarch Jacob, whose adventurous tale rivals any yarn spun today. Left for dead by his envious brothers, sent into Egypt where he remained a prisoner until circumstances enabled him to become the right hand man of Pharaoh, meeting his brothers again: there’s more to this rollicking story than our time tog...

#28. Unleashed for God - Rev. Shane Page

This Sunday we continue our series on a few of the stories of the book of Genesis. This week we will hear the story of someone who, at long last, responds in Genesis to the voice of God in the right and proper way: Abram, who would later become Abraham. It is from his radical response to God that Abram would become designated the father of all those who respond with a similar act of faith. What lessons can we derive from Abram's call? This Sunday let's consider the truths we can derive from o...

#27. The Land of Confusion - Rev. Shane Page

This Sunday we continue our exploration of a few of the foundational stories of the book of Genesis, arriving this week at one of the strangest passages in the book itself: the episode of the Tower of Babel in (chapter 11). Human beings unite to build one common city with one common language using one common technology, and then God, sensing the danger in the project, foils their plans by scattering humanity into a plurality of languages. Why? What does the enigmatic story want to teach us...