ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSMarch 24, 2024In today’s sermon, an idea I originally planned to use but time constraints required that it be left on the floor of my editing room had to do with Roman Citizenship. If someone was not a citizen of Rome, there were ways of gaining citizenship, but it was something that had to be earned. Keeping that in mind, as the Apostle Paul (a Roman citizen
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSMarch 23, 2024Today is Palm Sunday Eve, an important day in the life of the church. Not really, but I like to think of it in those terms. In Matthew’s telling of the story, Jesus sends two disciples into Jerusalem to find a donkey and a colt that he will ride. At the time of this request, it says that they were in Bethphage, about a two-hour
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSMarch 22, 2024On Sunday, which happens to be Palm Sunday, we will conclude the series on Pressing The Reset Button. As we continue to push the metaphor of the reset, we will focus on the necessity of anyone seeking to live like Jesus needing a reset from one perspective to another. There is one world where the humble are crushed and the last are defined as losers,
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSMarch 21, 2024Yesterday, my sister Stephanie and I had an email exchange. It became a bit comical as I completely misunderstood the first email she sent, and from that initial misunderstanding, it sort of spiraled into utter chaos. Ok, that might be a bit overstated, but had it been something significant, I believe the outcome could have been unhelpful, even leaving two people or two groups at
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSMarch 20, 2024In yesterday’s devotional, I shared an experience from Sunday evening when outside of a grocery store, a woman (I assumed referencing my dark purple dress shirt) smiled and said to me, “You must be a Lent Boy.” I’ll confess to you some internal back and forth on whether to tell the story or even to do so with a slight change of language. In the
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSMarch 19, 2024Sunday evening, after the Board Meeting and a couple of hospital visits, I ran to the grocery store. I was still dressed in my dark purple dress shirt from Sunday morning, and as I was walking out, an older woman smiled at me and said, “You must be a Lent Boy.” “Why yes,” I told her, “and I was in worship this morning for the
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSMarch 18, 2024Prayer for the Week:O Merciful God, as we enter a new week, we acknowledge those moments when we feel as if we have come to a dead end and it appears as if there is no way forward. In this Season of Lent, when we are slowing down to become more aware of our own breathing and your presence found within each breath, we desire
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSMarch 17, 2024Years ago, I was running at 10k in a small town. The energy and hospitality were wonderful, and it was a fun race to run. But I laughed when I realized where the finish line was. As I stood there waiting to hear the person with the bullhorn yell, “Go,” I looked up and noticed that the banner ahead of me said, FINISH. It was
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSMarch 16, 2024In tomorrow’s sermon, I will be quoting a character from the limited series Lessons in Chemistry. Like Ted Lasso, I really did not want to see Lessons in Chemistry come to an end. It was powerful and profound, funny and heartwarming. The main character, Elizabeth Zott, was played brilliantly by Brie Larson. In the last episode, she says (and I rewatched it numerous times to
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSMarch 15, 2024A number of years ago, I was asked the question, “How old were you when you first really understood the Jesus message?” My answer then would be my answer now: “I am still trying to determine the Jesus message.” It’s not that I have no experience of its beauty and transformative power, but it’s as if the depth of this message is growing exponentially as