Newsletter: June 24-30

First United Methodist Church

Bristol, Tennessee

Your Weekly e-Newsletter and Events Schedule

June 24-30, 2021

Welcome to In-Person Worship Again….

We rejoice in once again gathering together for in-person worship!

If you are uncomfortable with worshiping in person or unable to join us for whatever reason, please tune in as we live-stream the service on Facebook.

Enter the narthex doors beside the sanctuary.
Wear a cloth mask that covers your mouth and nose until you are seated if you are vaccinated; if you are not fully vaccinated wear your mask continuously.
wear your mask when participating in singings and readings.
Maintain at least six feet of space between yourself and anyone outside of your immediate household.
Minimize your use of the lavatory and sanitize the spaces you use, and
Exit the Sanctuary through the side doors closest to the parking lot.

Visit our website

Schedule Adjustment:

In-person worship at 11:00a.m. Sundays in the sanctuary

can also be viewed on the church Facebook page.

If you have not connected to FUMC via Facebook,

please go do that. You can also connect to Rev. Berg

on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram.

He will try to share uplifting and empowering things

on those media.

5th Sunday After Pentecost

June 27, 2021

Mark 5:21-43

"Lament and Healing"

Rev. Brandon Berg

From the Pastor's Pen

I took the girls running on Tuesday morning this week. Running early isn’t their favorite thing to do, but they’re both serious about continuing training during the Summer, and afternoons and evenings are not available. So we popped out the door a little after 6:00 and they told me they had discussed doing hill sprints.

Hill sprints. That means finding a significant hill, or multiple significant hills, and sprinting up them. Repeat the process as many times as you had planned to, using the downhill segments to recover between sprints.

It’s about as miserable as it sounds.

But maybe you’ll remember what the weather was like on Tuesday morning. In the middle of a really dry week, Tuesday morning was a bit of a deluge. About a mile from the house, on the north end of Holston Avenue, the heavens opened up. The road became a stream. I typically advise Sarah and Rebekah to avoid puddles when we run, since wet socks lead to blisters and wet shoes take quite a while to dry, but there was no avoiding the water running across the entire road.

So we embraced it.

We were all four years old again, for just a moment, splashing through puddles, getting road grit up our legs, laughing right out loud and probably waking up every household on that stretch of the community.

We embraced the joy of that moment.

In the middle of one of the hardest types of running workouts I’ve done, we found levity and laughter.

I highly recommend it. I’m pretty convinced God made life for us to enjoy. Sometimes I just forget that. I’ll try harder to remember.

Peace,

Brandon

While we are practicing social distancing in response to the COVID-19 outbreak,

FUMC will not be keeping regular office hours.

If you need to reach Rev. Berg, he will still be responding by email at

pastor@fumcbristol.org

and by text or call (276) 237-6498

Last Sunday

4th Sunday After Pentecost

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Greeting and

Announcements

Sue Dietz

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First Reading

led by Rev. Berg

1 Samuel 17:32-49

Common English Bible

“Don’t let anyone lose courage because of this Philistine!” David told Saul. “I, your servant, will go out and fight him!”

“You can’t go out and fight this Philistine,” Saul answered David. “You are still a boy. But he’s been a warrior since he was a boy!”

“Your servant has kept his father’s sheep,” David replied to Saul, “and if ever a lion or a bear came and carried off one of the flock, I would go after it, strike it, and rescue the animal from its mouth. If it turned on me, I would grab it at its jaw, strike it, and kill it. Your servant has fought both lions and bears. This uncircumcised Philistine will be just like one of them because he has insulted the army of the living God.

“The Lord,” David added, “who rescued me from the power of both lions and bears, will rescue me from the power of this Philistine.”

“Go!” Saul replied to David. “And may the Lord be with you!”

Then Saul dressed David in his own gear, putting a coat of armor on him and a bronze helmet on his head. David strapped his sword on over the armor, but he couldn’t walk around well because he’d never tried it before. “I can’t walk in this,” David told Saul, “because I’ve never tried it before.” So he took them off. He then grabbed his staff and chose five smooth stones from the streambed. He put them in the pocket of his shepherd’s bag and with sling in hand went out to the Philistine.

The Philistine got closer and closer to David, and his shield-bearer was in front of him. When the Philistine looked David over, he sneered at David because he was just a boy; reddish brown and good-looking.

The Philistine asked David, “Am I some sort of dog that you come at me with sticks?” And he cursed David by his gods. “Come here,” he said to David, “and I’ll feed your flesh to the wild birds and the wild animals!”

But David told the Philistine, “You are coming against me with sword, spear, and scimitar, but I come against you in the name of the Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel’s army, the one you’ve insulted. Today the Lord will hand you over to me. I will strike you down and cut off your head! Today I will feed your dead body and the dead bodies of the entire Philistine camp to the wild birds and the wild animals. Then the whole world will know that there is a God on Israel’s side. And all those gathered here will know that the Lord doesn’t save by means of sword and spear. The Lord owns this war, and he will hand all of you over to us.”

The Philistine got up and moved closer to attack David, and David ran quickly to the front line to face him. David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone. He slung it, and it hit the Philistine on his forehead. The stone penetrated his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground.

Opening Hymn

"How Firm a Foundation"

UMH 529

sung by Phil Haga

The Lord's Prayer

led by Rev. Berg

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy Name,

thy kingdom come,

thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass

against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

and the power, and the glory,

for ever and ever. Amen.

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Last Week's Sermon

"The Family Chosen"

Melissa Wright, LMCW

"It is Well With My Soul"

UMH 377

Phil Haga

with

Betty Curtis

Sunday School Resumes!

MASKLESS, if you feel comfortable
vaccinated people may attend
9:30am-Shaw Anchor Classroom
study materials available on main hallway literature table

New Health and Safety Procedures

For Service Attendance

Click on the link below to read the changes now in effect.

New Health and Safety Procedures

A Note From Our

Lay Leader

God’s Eyes

The other day I watched a beautiful report about two Downs Syndrome men who run in triathlons. The older man saw something in the younger man that made him want to encourage participation by the younger man. He had not lived a physically active life and started from the ground up. Together they have run and completed races after the grueling training.

We need to break the habit of prejudging another person’s capabilities by background, lifestyle, education, or any of the other things we use to judge each other. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see a person as God does? The first and foremost thing we would see is a person loved by our creator.

I bet we have each developed some new talents or renewed old interests during the long year of lockdown. We are returning to more activities and more opportunities to practice a new way of looking at each other and learning what we each can do to practice God’s love.

We will have new people to welcome to First as things reopen. We need to find how we can encourage them and what we can learn from them. Let us show them we are a family that welcomes and tries to use God’s eyes.

Sue Dietz