Mark 9: 2-9
Rev. Bryan Travis Hooper
Jesus takes three of his disciples – Peter, James and John – for a walk up a mountain. About the only thing we know about Peter, James and John is that they seemed to compose some sort of inner circle of Jesus’ disciples. And yet, at the same time, they don’t really demonstrate any special insight that would merit their special relationship with Jesus. They don’t seem to be particularly holy not do they ever seem to really get Jesus. So it’s not really clear why Jesus picked them to experience this moment up on the top of the mountain. Perhaps they were the ones who really needed to see the transfiguration. (more…)

Not to be morbid, but I now have over 120 pictures of my trip to Katrina online. If you want to see more of what we’ve been talking about in church, click here to see the pics, stored in my Flickr account.

Rev. Bryan Travis Hooper
Isaiah 43: 18-25
Most of the clergy I know go to some sort of professional therapy. Perhaps this is because we are all a little nuts. But we also go to therapy because we believe it is important for us to have a safe and responsible space where we can process our various issues. Therapy helps clergy step outside of the moment and take a good look at themselves, beyond the criticisms and compliments that pastors tend to receive each week. My therapist has said that our goal together is to get me to live out of my own innate spirit, so that I can make choices freely and not be restricted by fears, insecurities, doubts, or a desire to impress others. That’s not easy. But it is a fair image of what it means to be fully human – to be so connected to the Spirit inside of you, that your choices are made out of that Spirit alone, free from the burdens that hinder us, and with unwavering conviction. So, I wonder what we will do once we get that accomplished? Perhaps then I will decide I no longer need therapy, and what will my therapist have to say about it? (more…)

Rev. Bryan Travis Hooper
1 Corinthians 9: 16-23
I must confess that I rarely ever care who wins the Super Bowl. I enjoy watching the game and all the sensationalism around it – but the actually outcome is something I just can’t care too much about. I suppose if I was a Steelers or Seahawks fan, I might be able to muster some passion around the game, but even then I wouldn’t paint my face with team colors or spend thousands of dollars to get tickets – and I certainly wouldn’t riot in the streets after the game. (more…)

I realize that I haven’t written much in this blog in quite a while. I have been travelling an awful lot this month, so I’m behind on almost everything…

One of my trips was a VIM trip to Mississippi. I wrote a breif reflection for the new Weekly Edition Epistle, which I’ve included below, with a few pics from the trip:

Driving along the beach front in Mississippi, you will see beautiful white sands lapped by docile waves from the Gulf of Mexico out one side of the car window. Out the other side you will see mile after mile of devastation and destruction. The homes along the coast aren’t merely damaged: they’re obliterated. Further in from the coast, house after house has been flooded, damaged, and rendered uninhabitable. FEMA trailers are parked outside of homes, housing people who had no where else to go. Entire towns consisting of FEMA-trailer communities have sprung up.

In the Eastlawn United Methodist Church of Pascagoula, MS, over 100 United Methodist Volunteers in Mission sleep on the floors of Sunday School rooms and eat meals in the fellowship hall. They wake up each morning and head out in teams to begin repairs on a few of the endless homes in need of work. My team went to a home that had been stripped of sheet rock and flooring. Living in the trailer was Dot, a retired nurse who shared her trailer with her autistic nephew, Joseph. She had no insurance, no resources, no way to fix things. Each day, after we hung sheet rock, we stepped out of her house and realized that all of her neighbors, house after house, were in similarly dire straits.

All the people we talked to confirmed what seemed obvious to us: the greatest and most effective help has come from the churches. I was so proud to see so many United Methodists from all over the country giving so much to do what they could. People took their vacations to come work. Retired folks filled up their RVs with tools and supplies. Many bought equipment and material from funds raised in their local churches. To be sure, compared to the massive destruction our efforts seemed small. But to the few we were able to help, we made a resounding difference.