ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSApril 1, 2023Tomorrow is Palm Sunday, and of course, that means Easter is a week from tomorrow. I’m sure there are many such weeks in other walks of life, but for ministers, this is the intersection of stress and joy, craziness and exhilaration. Over the years, I have found the range of emotions to provide a little glimpse into the experience of the first Holy Week. People
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSMarch 31, 2023Is anyone else having a hard time believing tomorrow is April 1? This happens often—I wake up one morning and say to myself, “Wow! Where did the month (week, year, decade) go?” There were certain things that needed to be accomplished in March, and unless I stay up all night tonight, they will probably need to wait until April or possibly May. I am not
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSMarch 30, 2023Everyone likes a parade. Well, almost everyone. I can remember two parades in which the high school marching band participated despite bitterly cold temperatures and drizzle. Yes, I was in that band. Trying to play a saxophone with chattering teeth is not an easy thing to do. But as miserable as I was, looking at the sparse crowd along the route (mainly family members of
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSMarch 29, 2023Guest Writer: Rev. Mariah NewellMatthew 10:34– “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace but a sword. I have never particularly loved this Scripture, but I should probably clarify. I have never particularly loved how this Scripture is often interpreted and applied. Many times, I hear this as a justification for violence. That,
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSMarch 28, 2023Yesterday, I posted a quote from the New Testament scholar, NT Wright. It said: “Jesus’s resurrection is the beginning of God’s new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. That after all is what the Lord’s Prayer is about.” It appears to have struck a chord with a handful of people. Wright has
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSMarch 27, 2023Prayer for the Week:Merciful God, where there are those who are lonely, may the Body of Christ see them and engage them in holy fellowship; where there are those who are injured, may the Body of Christ see them and provide a healing salve; where there are those who are lost, may the Body of Christ see them and offer to walk alongside; where there
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSMarch 26, 2023One of the great questions with which Christians find themselves struggling is, “What does unconditional love look like in real-life situations?” I am thinking specifically when someone’s actions are unhealthy, destructive, or even abusive. Can love also include boundaries? Is it okay to say, “I love you, and I am not going to allow you to hurt me anymore”? Are there moments when choosing to
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSMarch 25, 2023Have you ever heard someone say to another person, “Hey! Show some compassion!” It is typically used when someone is oblivious, or worse, indifferent, to the suffering of another. Yet, can something like compassion be demanded? In Matthew 9:36, we read how Jesus saw the crowds and had compassion for them. The Greek word we translate as compassion is one of my favorite Greek words.
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSMarch 24, 2023“Is tomorrow trash day?” This is a question asked a lot around our house. Part of it could be due to bad memory, but part of it is due to the actual trash pickup occurring one or two days late. And we just learned the pickup days are changing again in a few weeks, after another change that occurred less than a year ago. This
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSMarch 23, 2023I grew up hearing about the National Benevolent Association. Though the word ‘benevolent’ was not a common word for a young kid, I had heard stories about the six women in St. Louis who gather for a Prayer Meeting. The year was 1886, and these women from First Christian Church were praying “about the plight of the homeless and helpless.” Some of these women went