Pastor’s Letter for February 2024

02/04/24.

Pastor Jim Martin of St. Matthew United Methodist Church in Weston, WV
Pastor Jim Martin

“Wait for the Lord, whose day is near.  Wait for the Lord, keep watch, take heart.”

These are the words of a hymn from an ecumenical religious community called Taizé in southern France.  This community’s roots go back to 1940.  It initially began with a brother and sister from Switzerland who were taking in refugees who were fleeing from the Nazis.  The community today has become a center of prayer and witness for our Lord Jesus Christ.  It draws people from all over Europe and beyond who make pilgrimages there to pray and worship.  The worship is simple and solemn rooted in prayer.  Indeed, everything is rooted in prayer at Taizé.  The hymns are short and repeated over and over as prayers, for that is what the hymns are:  prayer. 

I once overheard a very anxious voice say, “Enough with praying, it’s time to do something.”  And the one with the very anxious voice did just that: doing the first thing that came to mind.  I cannot say that there was no thought behind the action taken.  But by the anxious voice’s own admission, it was not prayerful thought. 

“Wait for the Lord, whose day is near.  Wait for the Lord, keep watch, take heart.”

How do you arrive at decisions?  Is it an emotional reaction?  Does fear rule over you?  When confronted with a decision and possible choices, might it be better to catch a breath, and to prayerfully work through each choice.  When I say ‘prayerfully’ I literally mean to invoke the Holy Spirit whom Jesus has sent to be our Counselor. 

My suspicion of the very anxious voice that I overheard several years ago, was that this voice did not often exercise prayer.  And this voice was frustrated with others who were praying. 

A consistent daily prayer life requires commitment and dedication.  Do you believe that one who practices a consistently daily prayer life would utter “Enough with praying…”?  Can there ever be enough prayer? 

Now through faithful prayer, we are called to join Christ in ‘putting hands and feet’ to our prayers, that is, doing something.  But that ‘something’ must always be rooted and inspired in where our God is preparing, calling, inviting, speaking, pointing, and moving. 

And we must all pray.  Not just a few.  Certainly, not just one.   We need to pray as individuals in our separate prayer ‘closets’ and collectively as small groups, and in worship. 

“Wait for the Lord, whose day is near.  Wait for the Lord, keep watch, take heart.”

How do we wait for the Lord?  Through daily prayer.  The Lord’s guidance will be near and it will be soon, if the body of Christ commits to daily prayer.  The body of Christ keeps watch through prayer.  And through prayer the body of Christ learns to take heart, to be assured that the Lord is listening, as the Lord is preparing, calling, inviting, speaking, pointing, and moving. 

“Wait for the Lord, whose day is near.  Wait for the Lord, keep watch, take heart.”

In Christ,

Pastor Jim