Bishop Young Jin Cho

I understand that for many of us, the identity of the Bishop of United Methodists in Virginia is too far removed from us to make much of a difference. The head of your particular division or company may be more important to you than to your neighbors.

But since we have chosen to affiliate with Burke United Methodist Church, since we are all members of this Body of Christ, and since the nature of the person “at the top” influences the culture and direction of the body as a whole – I want to say a word about our new Bishop.

Young Jin Cho reminds us of the power of the worldwide church – and the global character of United Methodism. He is the first Asian Bishop in the Southeastern Jurisdiction of United Methodist churches and the first non-Anglo / person of color ever to serve as Bishop of Virginia. If we ever despair of the world not changing much, here is proof that that’s not true.

Young Jin served for 22 years as the pastor of the Korean United Methodist Church of Greater Washington in McLean.  Under his leadership the church bought a smaller United Methodist church with cash, successfully completed three building projects, and guided it to become the largest worshiping congregation in our Conference (over 1000 people in worship each week). I would venture to say that more people have been sent into ordained ministry in the last 20 years from KUMC than from any other church in the Conference.

Young Jin became the Superintendent of the Arlington District in 2006.  This means he has offered spiritual and institutional guidance to roughly half of all UM churches in Northern Virginia, and his influence has been widely felt as well.  I had the privilege of working with him for several years prior to my arrival here at Burke.  Young Jin believes that in every aspect, the church’s vitality depends on its strong prayerful connection with God through Jesus Christ.  When we attend to our spiritual identity, then other measures of growth and fruitfulness will appear.  When we ignore the disciplined spiritual life, everything else is hollow.

Young Jin begins his duties on September 1. Because of our mandatory retirement age, he will only be able to serve as Bishop for one four-year period.  Since it takes any new Bishop (or pastor) about two years to get to know a new community, Young Jin’s assignment anywhere else would have severely limited his ability to make a difference for Jesus Christ.  Since he knows Virginia and vice-versa, his assignment here offers a unique opportunity for both continuity and re-focus.

I hope to welcome Young Jin here at Burke UMC in the near future, as his schedule permits. In the meantime, I invite your prayers that his leadership will indeed deepen our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and strengthen our ministries in His name.

Grace and peace, 

Pastor Larry

Little Demons

I’m nerdy enough to be excited by the almost-certain discovery of the Higgs boson this week.  You may have read about this.  Particle physicists believe they’ve found the “missing piece” that explains what’s called the Standard Model of physical reality.  It’s a particle without mass that seems to attract and interact with other mass-less particles, and together they create mass.  It’s a transformational particle.  The Higgs boson is why, in short, there’s something instead of nothing. So it’s sometimes called the “God Particle.” 

That’s also part of The BIG  Picture, what we’re exploring in sermons this summer.  When “Christ fills all in all,” at some level we’re talking physics and cosmology.

The Bible passage coming up this Sunday is a look at cosmology, but from a very un-scientific viewpoint.

In Ephesians 2:1-10, Paul mentions “the ruler of the powers of the air, the spirit now at work among those who are disobedient.” Paul is referencing the ancient belief that the universe is as alive as the earth.  His contemporaries considered the skies to be as teeming with life as is planet.  Heavenly beings were both angels and their opposites – unholy beings which are called “powers” or “principalities” or “rulers of the air,” all dwelling miles over our heads.

Very few of us could believe that to be literally true.  But we so often find ourselves being ruled by powers that seem to be “in the air we breathe.”  There’s something about the Washington area, for example, that forces us to serve the gods of Work and Efficiency more here than most other places.  Why is that?  Just seems to be part of the atmosphere.

Another unholy ruler of the air might be Speed.  Our guiding verse is often The Faster the Better. The computer industry has done a wonderful job in convincing us that increasing our processor’s speed by milli-seconds is worth replacing a fairly new, fully operable device – and at some expense  Cell telephone companies compare their service with racing motorcycles. When our mission teams arrive in another country, our first drive is to get the project completed quickly.  We serve this invisible authority called Speed, which is (by the way) never – never – named as a holy value.

We can name others: 
·         Choice (fewer options is always bad);
·         Position (we’re either #1 or failures)
·         Newness (new is always better).

The gospel sets us free from the tyranny of these principalities and powers. We are freed by the grace of God in Jesus Christ.  He alone has cut the bonds that bind us to these false gods, gods such as Work and Speed and Newness, little pretend-gods which exhaust us and demean us.  You are healed and held together by the love of God in Jesus Christ, never by trying to satisfy one of these little demanding rulers.

Knowing that cosmologists and particle physicists have debunked that old worldview doesn’t in itself set us free.  Only Jesus Christ does that.  Only in Him are we a freed and forgiven people.

Remember The BIG Picture. 

Pastor Larry