ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSeptember 30, 2021Do you know someone who is exceptional at welcoming? Do you know someone who has that special capacity to make a moment feel wide and inclusive, warm and hospitable? There are those who have that Spiritual Gift, an innate ability to create space where concerns of rejection or exclusion are not present. We think of Jesus as the one who welcomed, and he did, but
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSeptember 29, 2021Have you ever been hated by everyone? There might be times when we felt that way, but I doubt it was everyone. In Luke 5, we read about Jesus encountering a tax collector by the name of Levi. Jesus says to him, “Follow me,” and he does. Later, Levi throws a big banquet for Jesus at his house, and many other tax collectors joined them
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSeptember 28, 2021A few weeks ago an image went viral of one football player helping another football player who had a leg cramp. If you’ve ever played sports in the heat and had a leg muscle lock up, then you know the pain. Well the player who helped was on the opposing team. His name is Mario Hoefer, and he immediately knew what was happening when the
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSeptember 27, 2021Prayer for the Week: We pray for those who do not know love; those who experience an unhealthiness disguised as love; those who only know a self-serving kind of love. How is it, O Holy One, that some people yearn for love while others twist the definition and repackage it in a way unfamiliar to Jesus. Help us refocus our hearts and minds on the
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSeptember 26, 2021In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he writes: “If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” I read those words, the giving away of everything including one’s life, and I am awestruck. Yet Paul does not appear impressed, pointing back to love as the component
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSeptember 25, 2021Beginning this coming Sunday, and then for another four Sundays, I will preach on the Love Passage from 1st Corinthians. We’ve all heard it at a wedding as it is probably the most common passage requested by a couple. Paul, of course, was not writing this letter to couples who would soon be tying the knot, but to a community that appeared to have lost
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSeptember 24, 2021Have you ever felt like something prepared you for something else? You did something small that provided some comfort or confidence when the bigger thing came your way? When Jesus was providing some coaching on faithfulness, he said, “Whoever is faithful with little is also faithful with much…” For the longest time, I pictured God testing us with a little something, scoring us, and then
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSeptember 23, 2021In the Episcopal Church, the Presiding Bishop is Michael Curry. At a recent meeting of the Bishops, he used the “narthex” as a sort of metaphor for where we are. The “narthex” is a church term for the lobby outside the sanctuary of a church building, a sort of middle space between the sanctuary and the outside. Curry said, “We are living in a narthex
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSeptember 22, 2021I love Richard Rohr! He is a Franciscan Friar and author who brings such wonderful insights to life and faith and what it means to be a human being. In a recent Blog Post, he quoted the 14th century mystic, St. Catherine of Siena, who wrote: “It’s heaven all the way to heaven…” I won’t pretend to know what she meant by those words, but
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSeptember 21, 2021When I was attending church camp as a youth, we would sing the “Garden Song” by Pete Seeger. I loved that song, and I still find its opening verses coming back to my mind and lips, often for no apparent reason. It starts with these words: Inch by inch, row by rowGonna make this garden growGonna mulch it deep and lowGonna make it fertile ground