ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSSeptember 15, 2024President Harry Truman is known to have said, “I sit here all day trying to persuade people to do the things they ought to have sense enough to do without my persuading them.” He went on to suggest that this work of persuasion is about the extent of the president’s real power. Yet if these are things people ought to have sense enough to do,
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSSeptember 14, 2024My lip would not stop bleeding! So I’m sitting in the hospital parking lot, ready to go and visit one of our church folk. I get out of the car, but then reach back to grab something, and I hit the right side of my mouth pretty hard. My lip starts bleeding, which is not exactly how you want to greet someone in the hospital.
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSSeptember 13, 2024In Romans 9, the Apostle Paul wrote:“What then are we to say? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses,‘I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.’ So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy” (vs.14-16). Paul wrestles with the tension
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSSeptember 12, 2024Was anyone else genuinely bummed to hear about the death of James Earl Jones? It’s not like I ever met the guy or even enjoyed some friendly correspondence, yet there was something about him that made it feel as if he had been a part of my life. Of course, some of it was his voice, specifically offering the iconic voice of Darth Vader. He
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSSeptember 11, 2024Today is my wife’s birthday. She is celebrating it as most people celebrate a new year of life—she is getting a crown. No! Not one that you wear on your head but that requires a dentist. Happy birthday! With all seriousness, I think about this day as a microcosm of life. In a 24-hour period, we can have some wonderful celebrations, spend a lot of
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSSeptember 10, 2024Sunday, I started talking broadly about Spiritual Gifts. It is important to make some distinctions, as that is a phrase that is tossed around within the church without often defining what is means. To do so, let’s talk about what Spiritual Gifts are not. First, they are different than the Fruit of the Spirit. In Galatians 5, the Apostle Paul tells us that the Fruit
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSSeptember 9, 2024Prayer for the Week: Creative One, Creating Spirit, there is a forever work of making and remaking, shaping and reshaping of our lives. This assumes that we have not allowed the clay of our souls to be fired in a kiln of hopelessness, loneliness, or forsakenness. Yet too often, life and circumstance appear to have solidified and fossilized any possibility of any potentiality. It can
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSSeptember 8, 2024Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community.” Do we ever focus on the wrong thing even though we have convinced ourselves it is the right thing? Community is the abstract. But people should be the focus of our mission; they are the reality to which we have
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSSeptember 7, 2024What does giving of ourselves teach us? What does it mean when we give in such a way that a challenging choice is required? What does it do to a person when they must give up something they want or like so they can give? Jesus spoke of a woman who gave, not from her abundance but from her poverty (Mark 12:44). It speaks of
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSSeptember 6, 2024You have seen on the news a story of the Pope visiting Indonesia, a predominately Muslim country. There is a great deal of symbolism in this visit, including the Pope meeting with the Grand Imam of the Istqlal Mosque in Jakarta. This mosque stands across the street from the Catholic cathedral. What I did not know until this visit was that a tunnel was dug