ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSMay 26, 2024Forgiveness is something that most all of us, on some level, struggle with. It is complicated with passages like the one we find in the Sermon on the Mount—Matthew 6, where we find Jesus saying to the crowd: If you forgive others their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you don’t forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your sins. I
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSMay 25, 2024On this day in 1925, John Scopes was indicted for teaching evolution in a public school. Most of us remember from history some of what occurred during the Scopes Trial and the names of the major players. A fault line between Christian fundamentalism and a more progressive approach to scripture had been intensifying for nearly fifty years. The breaking point was the Butler Act, a
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSMay 24, 2024I am hoping that most of you, if not all of you, received the news about Rev. Mariah Newell accepting a call to serve as Minister to Children and Families at University Christian Church in Fort Worth. It is the church on the campus of TCU and one of the great churches in our denomination. We all know that they will be immensely blessed to
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSMay 23, 2024Since graduate school, I have found myself having an ongoing debate with Reinhold Niebuhr (1892 – 1971). He was a theologian and ethicist at Union Seminary in New York who challenged a lot of the naive theologies that allowed Nazi Germany and fascism to go unchallenged. Niebuhr was a realist, and though he believed in the ideal of love (agape), he concluded that human beings
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSMay 22, 2024I have debated whether or not to engage the conversation around the commencement speech by the Kansas City Chief’s kicker, Harrison Butker. I have watched the speech and have read the transcript twice. Let me begin by saying that, agree or disagree, I hold pretty strongly to the First Amendment, making space for people to express their opinion. There are always limits, though that line
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSMay 20, 2024Prayer for the Week:We seek to entrust all the endings and the new beginnings to you, O Merciful God. We hear the words of scripture that speak of how for everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven, yet so often we are not ready to let go of one season, and we have no desire to think of that
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSMay 19, 2024This has been a tough week for many people—the storm, power-outages, a family member having an unexpected surgery, busyness around graduations, a pending move, saying goodbye to a beloved furry and four-legged family member, having a dishwasher go on the fritz, battling the health insurance company, or watching the news with disbelief and heartache. Your list might not have included any of these, but life
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSMay 18, 2024I returned from Nebraska late Thursday night, and though we had a very good experience in Alliance, Nebraska, with my siblings as we did the interment of my mother’s ashes, I returned with The Crud. I got some rest yesterday, and I am looking forward to moving to the other side of this head fog. So yesterday, as I rested on the couch, I turned
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSMay 17, 2024Maybe you have done it enough to have absolutely no jitters, but I really dislike returning a rental car on my way to catch a flight. Traffic around Denver Airport was pretty crazy, and of course, finding a gas station to fill the rental before returning was challenging. It actually turned out very well, and Donna and I arrived at our gate with plenty of
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSMay 16, 2024This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday, and as we ponder the power of the Holy Spirit, I think about the promise of Jesus that we read about in John’s Gospel, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever” (vs.14:15-16). Jesus spoke of “another Advocate.” The Greek word