A two-alarm fire earlier this week has rendered 19 people, several of them children, without a home. The residents of the apartment building at 224 South Whitney are now in need of significant help. In addition to losing their homes, their possesions were destroyed, either by fire or by the water used to douse the flames. They are in need of clothing, furniture and a new place to live. You can help them by making out a check to the United Methodist Church of Hartford marked “Whitney Fire” and mailing it to the church, dropping it off at the church office or depositing it in the offering plate on Sunday morning. Your money will allow us to respond to the diversity of needs of the fire victims very quickly, so that the challenges caused by this fire can be addressed. In the unlikely event that any funds are left over, they will go into the Pastor’s Discretionary Fund to meet other needs of church friends and neighbors.

Matthew 10:24-39
Rev. Bryan Travis Hooper

It is easy for us to hear in these words from Jesus, the rather jarring, difficult to comprehend bits. “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” “If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!” “Whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.” “I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother.” These are really tough, hard things to hear – they shock us, and it’s hard for us to believe such words were uttered from the lips of Jesus. I have to admit that I don’t know what to really do with them. There is no easy way to rationalize them or understand them so that the sting of the words is reduced. I prefer to simply say they are what they are – tough, challenging words from our Lord – words that remind us that discipleship is not east – that to follow Jesus means to have a different set of priorities – to be accountable ultimately to God, to live this life as if you were in the next. Matthew 10 is about the cost of discipleship, the challenging realities of what it means to follow Jesus. (more…)

Matthew 9:35-10:8
Rev. Bryan Travis Hooper

I recently went car shopping with a friend. I hadn’t done that in quite a while. Usually what happens is you go to this giant parking lot with a bunch of cars and you walk around looking at the cars and reading the sticker in the window that tells you how much it costs and what’s included. After about two seconds of that, a person mysteriously appears out of no where and offers to help you with any questions. It doesn’t matter if you want help or not. This person will continue to follow you around and inform you about the various cars you are looking at. Well, inform isn’t really the right word, because they will leave out certain pieces of information that might suggest that their car is less valuable than another car. So what they will really tell you is how great their car is – how their car is the right car for you – how their car has so many benefits and excellent qualities that you really don’t have any other choice. (more…)

Exciting times are happening for the children of our neighborhood and church! Every Tuesday afternoon at 4:00 P.M. through August 19th, members of United Methodist Church of Hartford and visiting guests will read or tell stories on the lawn of the church at 571 Farmington Avenue. Sometimes there will be puppets, music, and/or audience participation. Themes for the remaining weeks include stories focusing on Just for Fun, Careers, and Friendships. Brian Florca, a children’s author and illustrator, will draw for us. Bob Maxon of NBC 30 will be a featured reader. Geared for kindergarten through second grade children, yet appropriate for all ages, and their parents, this one hour program happens rain or shine. (If raining, we move inside the front doors of the church.) A varied assortment of yummy snacks is provided. Stop by for a fun-filled time!… “Front Lawn Storytime” takes place during the first hour of the West End Farmers’ Market.

Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
Rev. Bryan Travis Hooper

Jesus hung out with the wrong crowd. After calling a tax-collector to follow him, Jesus shares a meal with a crowd of sinners. These are not the kind of folks a religious leader should be seen with. Tax-collectors were thought to be dishonest, charging more than was due them in order to make a profit. They were agents of the Roman Empire, taking money from the local people to fund the empire. Eating with sinners was particularly troublesome, because who one ate dinner with was assumed to say a lot about a person. If one was found in the company of such unholy people, it was a natural assumption that one shared in their unholiness. (more…)

Matthew 7:21-29
Rev. Bryan Travis Hooper

This passage today is the conclusion of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, as it is told in Matthew’s gospel. It is the longest single speech that Jesus gives in the entire gospel, and it serves as his most important teaching moment for his disciples. It includes some of the most memorable words of Jesus: the beatitudes; teachings on anger and lust and divorce and oaths and nonviolent behavior; the radical call of God to love our enemies; the Lord’s Prayer; teachings about money and judgmentalism. It is largely a sermon or teaching about how to live the Christian life, about what it means to follow Jesus. If you want to get a good sense of what Jesus taught, reading chapters 4 through 7 of Matthew is a pretty good place to start. (more…)