ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHING March 6, 2026 There are days when I feel like my faith (and my position as a minister) is a fraud. It can feel like a bad case of imposter syndrome, where the negatives and failures seem to eclipse everything else. I don’t share this in search of compliment or reassurance, but as an acknowledgement that I am probably not alone. Most of us who are
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS March 5, 2026 Could you ever imagine a king who declared his authority as a divinely given blessing, and then used his so-called special status to justify a war as holy? I’m sure such a thing is hard to imagine. For those of you wondering, that is sarcasm. Kings and rulers have throughout human history used divine sanction and consent to squelch any sort of dissension,
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS March 4, 2026 The best-made plans! How many times have we said those words or thought them? Yesterday was election day, and the George H. W. Bush Community Center was a polling place. They had communicated to the church the need to use the street parking on the courthouse side for additional drive-up voting, but when I arrived at the church yesterday morning, they were in
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS March 3, 2026 An embarrassing video of me might just show up on social media. Yesterday, I was driving home after a funeral. I was still wearing my suit jacket, and even with the AC running in the car, it was hot. So when I stopped at a stoplight, I attempted to take off my jacket. A suit jacket does not stretch, and this one was
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS March 1, 2026 When I originally wrote my heading for today’s Etching, I wrote February 29th. I believe it was an unconscious attempt at holding on to February. I sure wasn’t ready to see the month of March arrive. When I lived in Nebraska and Indiana, we couldn’t wait until March came. Winter was hard, but especially when the cold, gloom, and piles of snow didn’t
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS February 28, 2026 We are at the end of Black History Month, and I am grieving the recent death of Rev. Jesse Jackson. Though some are quick to dismantle his entire life’s work because of an affair, I am not willing to dismiss everything. Don’t get me wrong, I was both disappointed to learn of the affair and felt he should step down from all of
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS February 27, 2026 The workweek is coming to a conclusion, though as I say that, I know that more and more people are not Monday – Friday people, at least when it comes to work (or volunteer). In fact, some people might find the weekend to be more stressful and demanding because of family obligations or a commitment to a local nonprofit. The scriptures speak about
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS February 26, 2026 On Sunday, we will read together the words, “Be still before the Lord…” The Oxford Jewish Bible translates it as, “Rest in Hashem…” (Hashem literally means ‘the name,’ and it is the Jewish way of avoiding saying the sacred name of God). With that said, I’m intrigued by the preposition in this phrase — before or in. Whether we are being still or
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS February 24, 2026 On Sunday, I based our first Lenten Grab Bag of Verses sermon on the words from Philippians 4:13, “I can endure all these things through the power of the one who gives me strength.” Those words from the translation known as the Common English Bible were put over and against translations like the New Revised Standard Version, “I can do all things through