Classic City Rev

When I started this blog I said that I wasn't going to write columns about Georgia football.  I know maybe claiming a technicality but in the end this column isn't about Georgia football, but I'm going to use it as a starting point. Unless one has been living in a cave in Siberia the last week one is aware the Georgia football team lost to LSU 37-10 in the SEC Championship game last Saturday evening.  It was a rough night for the Dawgs to be sure.  However, to hear some Georgia fans the last few days one would think that the University of Georgia football program is in total shambles. Some folks are screaming for people to be fired.  Others are acting like the season was a total failure. It is, to say the least, a complete over reaction.   What these over reactors are missing is perspective.  After all, Saturday's loss was in a championship game.  There were twelve other teams in our conference that would have loved to have had the ...

We United Methodists are a part of a liturgical church, meaning that we have a church calendar that moves us through the various seasons of the year.  These seasons often dictate the themes and content of our worship.  We share this calendar with our Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran, and Presbyterian friends.  Other denominations besides these may also follow this calendar. In the liturgical calendar most of the seasons that are celebrated are connected to events in the life of Jesus.  Christmas, which celebrates Jesus' birth, and Easter, which celebrates Jesus' resurrection are examples of this. Though the retail and consumer culture tells us that it is Christmas time, the liturgical calendar tells that it is not yet Christmas but rather Advent.  Advent consists of the four Sundays prior to Christmas. Most churches have an Advent wreath with five candles and each week a candle is lit on the wreath as the church moves closer to the celebration of Chr...

Author's note:  This weeks blog is an excerpt from my Thanksgiving message which I delievered at Tuckston United Methodist Church last Sunday. Sadly in our culture the observance of Thanksgiving has become for many the opening of the Christmas Season, rather than the important day it is on it’s on.   Many persons, particularly children make a list at Christmas times of things they wish to receive as gifts.   Today I would like offer that all of us, regardless of our age should make a Thanksgiving List naming the things for which we give thanks not only at this time of year but anytime we stop and reflect on the life with which we have been blessed.   I am honored to share mine.             I am thankful for a God who loves me and who through his Son, Jesus Christ, has given me grace and salvation.             I am thankful that on an August...

Yesterday was one of those days.  It started at prayer breakfast.  I joined a group of gentlemen from Tuckston at their weekly prayer breakfast at our neighborhood Chick-Fil-A.  It is one of the highlights of my week. My right arm was itching a little just above my wrist and so I reached under the cuff of my shirt to give it a little scratch.  Soon I noticed blood on my shirt.  Apparently I'd scratched a bit too hard.  So I returned home changed into a different shirt and tie and went into the church office. I had an appointment after lunch and after the appointment I decided on a cup of coffee to give me a pick-me-up before I visited a couple of parishioners in a nearby care facility.  One should never try to drink a cup of coffee and do computer work at the same time.  While typing on my computer I managed to bump the coffee cup and send coffee all over my shirt, over one leg of my pants and all over my tie.  Now I'm wet, my cl...

One of my all time favorite movies is "Gran Torino" in which Clint Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski a crochety Korean War veteran and retired auto worker who spends his days sitting on the front porch of his home drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer.  As a pastor I can't recommend the movie because Walt's vocabulary is the vocabulary of  a crochety Korean War veteran and retired auto worker who spends his days sitting on the front porch of his home drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer. The movie tells the story of how Walt befriends an Asian family that lives next door to him while bemoaning the transitional nature of his Detroit area neighborhood.  The widowed Walt takes extreme pride in his home and his lawn. One of the classic scenes in the movie takes place when some neighborhood thugs trespass on Walt's lawn.  Walt appears on the front porch with a shotgun in classic crochety old man fashion points the gun at the thugs and declares "Get off my lawn."...

It was a great day Saturday down by the St. John's River.  The Georgia Bulldogs prevailed over the Florida Gators in a game that really wasn't as close as the score would indicate but still close enough that I probably would not have wanted my blood pressure taken during the contest. Since arriving in Athens I have enjoyed being a part of the Touchdown Club of Athens and made my way over to the Athens Country Club Monday night for a meeting.  The room was filled with Bulldog fans who were relishing in the win over the Gators last Saturday.  The featured speaker was Coach Vince Dooley, who pretty much owned the Gators during his twenty-five years of guiding the Bulldog ship. I don't know how many times over the years I've heard Coach Dooley speak at various functions but he stated that Monday evening would be his last speech to the Touchdown Club.  At age 87 I'm sure he is ready to wind down just a bit.   Quite frankly Coach Dooley didn't spend a who...

Authors note:  Many of the thoughts expressed in this week's blog are based on a similar column I wrote that was published in The Monticello News in May of 2011 upon the death of Osama Bin Laden. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed last weekend in raid led by U.S. soldiers.  Bakr al-Baghdadi was the leader of ISIS which is an Islamic inspired terrorist group that controlled a substantial swath of territory in Syria and Iraq and one.  Bakr al-Baghdadi was no doubt a murderous soul and a sinister individual. It is certainly appropriate that we commend those brave members of our armed forces who carried out this raid.  The young men and women of our armed forced can never be thanked enough. Though there are certainly domestic political considerations in play in this scenario this is not the place to address those issues.   There is within me, as I would hope that there is all Christians, a tension when I receive news such as this.  On the one hand th...