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
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSJune 14, 2024 Like a lot of people, I have been watching the decision-making process at the Southern Baptist Church’s Convention taking place this week in Indianapolis. The SBC is the largest Protestant Denomination in the United States, and so their decisions are watched pretty closely by the media and many of us clergy. The most impactful decision was formalizing an amendment to their constitution that would
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSJune 13, 2024It is Thursday the 13th of June. Oooo… scary. Ok, it’s not Friday the 13th, but whether Tuesday, Thursday or Friday, the whole notion of 13 being an unlucky number is one of those things that I find strange. With that said, there are many people who take it very seriously, or even those who have a genuine fear of it. Where it started and
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSJune 12, 2024What is hope? And is there hope that is in progress? Yesterday, I read another article on a new Alzheimer’s medication, and it sounds like another small step forward. Yes, there is a bit of skepticism in my writing, yet I recognize that often in medical research there is not a single monumental breakthrough but a long line of small incremental steps forward. Both Donna
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSJune 11, 2024Francis of Assisi wrote, “Pure, holy simplicity confounds all the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of the flesh.” This quote has been sitting with me for a while, especially as I think about the simple things like kindness and gentleness and trigonometry. Ok, maybe not the third one, but I wonder if we assume that great things are only achieved through the complicated.
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSJune 10, 2024Prayer for the Week:God of deep and abiding connections, our hearts are full of joy whenever we know we have a friend. You have gifted this world with love and the power it has to bind up wounds and create pathways forward when no such pathway had previously been known. And wherever people are hurting and doing so alone, we pray for your Spirit to
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSJune 9, 2024In preparation for today’s sermon, I read a number of articles on fear and intimidation. One of those articles was entitled that very thing: Fear and Intimidation by Michael Schreiner (May 30, 2017). He wrote: “People who use fear and intimidation to get their way are usually perceived as fearless and intimidating by those who are made to cower before them, but this is hardly