ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSJune 24, 2024We offer a prayer today with the hope of finding within ourselves the capacity to forgive. God of Grace and Mercy, we have been taught in the life of Jesus both the importance of forgiveness and the expectation that we will forgive. As recipients of your great gift of merciful kindness that does not define us by our worst days or hurtful choices, we express
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSJune 23, 2024Some of you may have seen my post on Facebook yesterday. It was a memory from twelve years ago—a picture taken as we crossed into Texas on our move from Florida. Over the next two weeks, we moved into our new home, unpacked tons of boxes, found the grocery store, had my first day in the office, and preached my first sermon at Cypress Creek
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSJune 22, 2024I didn’t expect that! Those words are often said in the world of archeology. Yesterday, I read a fascinating article about a recently discovered shipwreck that was almost 3,500 years old. It was more than a mile under the Mediterranean Sea and more than 50 miles off shore. Those who study such things did not believe ships at that time had the capacity to cross
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSJune 21, 2024This Sunday will be the second-to-last sermon on the Totality of the Jesus Life. We have been looking at numerous passages of scripture that have historically caused discomfort, anger, confusion, or even brought some people to the point of leaving Christianity behind. Too often, people have been told that they simply need to accept the Bible for what it is—maybe even being told that it
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSJune 20, 2024Yesterday was Juneteenth, the celebration of Union troops arriving in Galveston Bay with the news of freedom for more than 250,000. Two years earlier, on January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. The Thirteenth Amendment passed in January of 1865, but news did not reach many living in Confederate territories until months later. Yesterday was the anniversary of that news arriving in Galveston, but
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSJune 19, 2024One of my ongoing struggles in ministry is finding the balance between clarity of conviction and not reinforcing an Us vs. Them scenario. For example, I was recently sent a scathing online diatribe against my views on women. Not only did this individual believe women had no place in church leadership, but a woman needed to submit to her husband’s authority in marriage. How can
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSJune 18, 2024I am guessing that some people walked away from Sunday’s sermon scratching their heads and trying to figure out what I was trying to accomplish. It was a different style of sermon, trying to have history ask some of the questions for me. And I hope you heard how the faithful throughout the generations have been deeply troubled by the idea of the Bible suggesting
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSJune 17, 2024Prayer for the Week: Give me eyes to see the loneliness in others; provide me a spirit overflowing with your love; inspire within me compassion by which your love within me is poured forth from me; supply me the courage to do so even when the world around me questions my purpose or motivation. I ask this of you, O Holy One, who guides me
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSJune 16, 2024 Today in worship, we are going to enjoy a good word from the book of Deuteronomy, where we read: “A father and a mother may have a stubborn and rebellious son who refuses to obey them even after he has been punished. If a son is like that, his parents must drag him to the town gate… [and] the men of the town will
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSJune 15, 2024 In 2 Kings 23, we read: “Josiah sent some men to Hinnom Valley just outside Jerusalem with orders to make the altar there unfit for worship. That way, people could no longer use it for sacrificing their children to the god Molech” (vs.10). This goes along with Leviticus 18:21, where we find this admonition: “Don’t sacrifice your children on the altar fires to the