faith – Rev. Dr. Joseph McBrayer

2026.01.25 Prayers for the World

Here are the Prayers of the People I offered in worship on Sunday January 25th, 2026 at Oak Grove United Methodist Church in Decatur, GA, USA.

God of love, compassion, and justice,

We thank you for people and technology that helps us to remain connected in the unity of worship today.

We ask that you would keep us safe and warm this day and help us to remember our un-housed neighbors and friends.

We pray for the many needs of our community and for all those on our prayer lists. At the church and for those we are remembering in our personal prayers today.

We come to you today with much on our minds and hearts as there is so much turmoil and animosity in our world.

We pray for all those experiencing violence in the world remembering the people of Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Sudan, Venezuela, Ukraine, in our nation in Minneapolis, and here at home.

Keep us safe from harm and keep us safe from doing harm by our actions or inactions, by our words spoken or not spoken.

We lament the injustices of the world and in our own nation. We pray for the families and friends of Alex Pretti and Renee Good — whose lives should not have been ended.

We pray for little children and families who have been separated in ways that lessen their humanity and lessen our own humanity.

We pray too for the officers, political leaders, and all those who would use words and actions to justify or cause the inhuman treatment of people, citizens or not.

May your Spirit convict their hearts and minds -and ours -and help us all to see the humanity of others.

Teach us to lament the actions and language of violence and the Dehumanization of people who are made in your image. Help us to honor the dignity and worth of all people.

May we not grow cynical or numb to the realities of others and may you help us to not simply turn away because things are too difficult to look at —create in us clean hearts that seek understanding, honesty, and compassion.

May we not give in to the temptation to worship the idolatry of power, but, as Jesus teaches us, may we seek to care for the weak, the downtrodden, and the outcast as our actors of worship by loving our others and you O God.

Remind us that we are called to be part of the good in the world — help us to know that we are not alone and that together, we can work for your beloved community to be made here on earth as it is in heaven.

Help us to live into the prayer your son taught us, saying:

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, forever.
Amen.

“Faith, Lived Minute by Minute”

“Faith, Lived Minute By Minute” // Dr. Nora Colmenares’ Germany reflection filmed at the Dokumentation Center in Nuremberg, Germany (https://museums.nuernberg.de/document…)

// this film is a part of a series sharing our Continuing Education group’s experience in Germany (Berlin, Chemnitz, Fürth/Nuremberg, Göppingen, Albstadt) to learn about resistance, healing, reconciliation, and asylum seekers & refugees.

Our group seeks to be “Intellectually Curious, Socially Holy, and Conscious” and to explore ways that we might help pastors, institutions, and other groups to appreciate people of difference and work together across lines of race, class, and other boundaries.

This 2 year initiative is funded through the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church’s Academy of Clergy Excellence (ACE2) Program. http://ngumc.org

World Refugee Day Homily

2018.06.20 MidWeek Communion Service Homily (World Refugee Day) at Oak Grove United Methodist Church

Scripture: Matthew 2:13-15
“When the magi had departed, an angel from the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up. Take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod will soon search for the child in order to kill him.” Joseph got up and, during the night, took the child and his mother to Egypt. He stayed there until Herod died.”

In this part of the birth narrative of Jesus, Matthew’s gospel is telling us the story of love coming into the world through Jesus–fully human, fully God. The obedient Magi have just left the scene, being warned in a dream to flee from the somewhat insecure, and certainly murderous, King Herod.

And so, we come into the story at the point where Joseph is also being warned in a dream to escape. They go to Egypt, fleeing for their lives.

We don’t get a lot of details about their experience getting to Egypt, nor how they were received in Egypt, but shortly after this scripture they do return and move to Nazareth in Galilee.

Today is international World Refugee Day. A day created by the United Nations General Assembly on December 4, 2000. The assembly noted that 2001 marked the 50th anniversary of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. This 1951 convention determined who qualified as refugees, set out the rights of individuals to be granted asylum, and defined the agreed-upon the responsibilities of nations granting asylum.

The UN High Commission of Refugees says that a refugee is: “A person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion,” and notes that refugees are typically unable to return home for those fears of persecution or unable to return home. (more info)

We see in the early text of Matthew’s Gospel narrative that Jesus, God incarnate, was forced to flee with his parents for fear of persecution and violence. Matthew’s portrayal of the birth narrative is mostly a story of God’s activity. The story is about the baby, infant Jesus, so Jesus here is not saving himself nor are these particularly really heroic deeds from Mary or Joseph, but rather faithful action–just as any parent would do what they needed for their children. This minor digression in the birth narrative is only found in the Gospel of Matthew and is often an overlooked portion of scripture. It reminds us that we are called to pay attention to the minor digressions in stories and that even through unappreciated and seemingly less important people God might be trying to show us something.

Imagine being someone in Egypt who met a baby/toddler version of Jesus brought in by two young parents, likely scared and yet hopeful. They went to Egypt with dreams for a better life for their child, the baby Jesus. And we don’t know that they found welcome in Egypt, but I like to imagine that some Egyptians saw them, had pity on them, recognized their gifts and abilities, and wanted to help them succeed.

World refugee day is about the celebration of not just the triumph of the human spirit, but also of the provision and welcome offered by host countries and community members.

How might we be called to pay attention to make room in our own lives for unexpected people or to create a space for others who are looking for a place of safety.

Sometime this week, whether tonight or later this week, perhaps re-read Matthew 2:13-15a and perhaps imagine yourself as an Egyptian seeing the holy family coming into town.

How do you feel drawn to help to encourage or to provide welcome?
How might God be using that to encourage us all to find a little more room?

Let it be so. Amen.

FYI: MidWeek Communion is a weekly Weds 5pm Worship service of prayers, a song, a Homily, and Holy Communion held in Grand Hall at Oak Grove UMC–feel free to drop by if you’re going to be out of town over the weekend or wanting to stop in & say “hi.” –JMcBray

National Student Forum: Dr. Eboo Patel

This weekend (May 21-24) I’m here in Shreveport, LA at Centenary College attending the National Student Forum of student forum logo the United Methodist Student Movement–basically a gathering of United Methodist college students who are from all over the US. Also there are 50+ UM campus ministers and chaplains (I’m now one of those as the Emory Wesley Fellowship Director!) It is a pretty awesome gathering of people in the United Methodist Church who are deeply passionate about young people, the church, and the world. Our theme is breaking barriers and building bridges.

Today at the conference Dr. Eboo Patel founder and executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core spoke to the students and later to the Campus Ministers about coming together despite differences, pluralism, and serving others. The Interfaith Youth Core, is an organization who “builds mutual respect and pluralism among young people from Eboo Patel different religious traditions by empowering them to work together to serve others.” Patel is a young, energetic, extremely intelligent and well-read communicator.

He spoke to us about the importance of building the “beloved community” of which Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke. Dr. Patel, a devout Muslim, shared his belief that MLK, Jr.’s vision of the beloved community consisted of and was informed/formed by two things: 1) his being deeply rooted in the Christian faith tradition, and 2) his relationships with people of other faiths. Patel encouraged and challenged the students and campus ministers to grow more deeply in their faith, noting that in deepening their own faith traditions they will encounter truths that resonate deeply with other faith traditions. He talked about the interfaith encounters and relationships of Martin Luther King, Jr. with Ghandi, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel to demonstrate that Martin Luther King, Jr. was not only a great leader for the civil rights movement and a great leader for the Christian movement, but that he was also a great interfaith leader.

Dr. Eboo Patel gave of his time and energy to share with us an articulate, challenging, and thought-provoking vision of young people coming together and leading people from different faith communities to serve the needs of the world through service to others. His message was and is encouraging, insightful, and it is gaining momentum–one conversation and one interfaith leader at a time. May it continue.

mississippi bridge