ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSSeptember 7, 2025Today in worship, we will be reflecting on the theme: Painting by sacred numbers. I’m sure most of you have done a paint by numbers, even if it has been many years since you tried to match the little container of paint with the number on the canvas. And though the image and language of the sermon will focus on the metaphor of painting, there
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSSeptember 6, 2025 I was reflecting on some words offered in an email blast almost a year ago from Sojourners Magazine. It referenced Proverbs 18:15, “An intelligent mind acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge,” but then the email blast went on to quote someone I did not think I knew. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian novelist whose writing has received great acclaim, but
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSSeptember 5, 2025Years ago, I remember hearing Archbishop Desmond Tutu preach at the General Assembly of our denomination. His sermon was based on Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God…” Actually, that is where he stopped. He did not move on to the next few words that speak of God creating, but instead, stuck with this notion that God existed before there was existence. It is sort of
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSSeptember 4, 2025I don’t know why, but I have had a hard time writing this Etching. I have experienced moments of inspiration, started to type, only to shake my head and say to myself, “Well, that’s nonsense.” Now I’m pretty sure I have written a few Etchings over the years that were actually published, and upon reading them, you thought to yourself, “Well, that’s nonsense.” If it’s
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSSeptember 3, 2025Twenty-one years ago on this day, Donna and I arrived in Guatemala City to complete the adoption process and bring our eleven-month-old child home. What was to be a three-month process turned into a nearly yearlong and very painful journey. We traveled three months earlier to visit the child that had been assigned to us, yet while we were there on our visit, we learned
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSSeptember 2, 2025On many occasions, I have been told that I might be overly sensitive or my reaction a bit over the top. I am willing to hear that critique, and the following might fall into one of those categories. With that said, I was a bit troubled by a press release the day after the shooting in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A religious organization invited people to pray
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSSeptember 1, 2025There are times when a sermon is still this loose and nebulous idea, and all the pieces in my mind seem to fit together in what I am certain will be a 16-18 minute message. And then it begins to take shape, and the idea becomes a sermon, and what I thought would be the final product is in fact about 40 minutes long. In
ECCLESIOLOGIC AL ETCHINGSAugust 31, 2025In her book, Sisters in the Wilderness, Womanist theologian Delores Williams writes about the wilderness and how frightening it can be. Yet she goes on to talk about survival in the wilderness requiring God-given resources like resiliency, hope, and determination if life and faithfulness are to be sustained in the face of fear. I appreciate how she does not dismiss fear as a reality,
ECCLESIOLOGIC AL ETCHINGSAugust 30, 2025It might be because school is starting, but I woke up about 30 minutes before my alarm yesterday and had a momentary panic as I thought it was Sunday. The sermon was not done, I had not sent out the worship material to the worship participants, and it was about 45 minutes later than I usually get up on Sundays. I’m sure the wave
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSAugust 29, 2025I won’t go into the details, but yesterday afternoon, I set down the things I was holding in my hands so I could unlock a door for some folks. There was a piece of wood where I was setting down the items, and I got a rather large splinter under my fingernail. Ouch! Double ouch!! As splinters go, it was pretty big. Yet in the