ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSOctober 17, 2023I have not written about the violence in Israel and Gaza since the events of October 7, in part because I have not really known what to say. In my prayer on Sunday, I spoke of hope for a third way, but I will confess to you that my usual hopeful attitude has been waning in this situation. In the past, I’ve been called naively
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSOctober 16, 2023Prayer for the Week: Holy God of Heaven, why did you make your key teaching on love so difficult? Why did you create so many cumbersome restrictions and complicated precepts to regulate how I am to love my neighbor? Oh wait! Never mind…that was us humans. Allow for your forgiveness to be my inspiration, pushing through all that inhibits my capacity to know, enjoy, and
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSOctober 15, 2023Donna and I made our annual Estimate of Giving for the church’s work of Putting Love First, specifically thinking about the ONE who has been at the center of our conversations the last month or so. I am sure there are many emotional reactions to a church having a Stewardship Program in which it invites those who are committed to the mission to make an
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSOctober 14, 2023Today, along with a handful of you all from the church, I will be listening to Rev. Bruce Barkhauer do a workshop at Kingwood Christian Church. Though the topic might not excite everyone, I believe more and more folks need to hear about Demystifying Stewardship. Stewardship has become one of those righteous-sounding Christian words, but I am pretty sure folks from other religions, alongside atheists,
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSOctober 13, 2023This week, I got called for jury duty. I have a strong emotional reaction to the idea of jury duty. Part of it is the drive downtown early in the morning and the challenges of making sure I find parking. Of course, like so many things, it was easier than I might have expected. I also have a more fundamental conundrum around serving on a
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSOctober 12, 2023Yesterday, I referenced the importance of keys, the focus of my sermon on October 1, and a central part of our Stewardship Campaign: “We Do This Work For The One Who Has Been Told…” Too often, people have been told outright or in more subtle ways that they are not smart enough to draw insight from the scriptures without “the educated” telling them what to
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSOctober 11, 2023My friend Michelle Beech posted the following quote yesterday, and it really resonated with me. “We are not what we know but what we are willing to learn.”~Mary Catherine Bateson I did not know the name Mary Catherine Bateson, but like so often happens, once I started reading about her, I was intrigued and realized she was probably a person I should have had
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSOctober 10, 2023I’ve been thinking a lot about my Etching from yesterday, a prayer about the holy affirmation we find, among other places, in the poetry, songs, and stories of scripture. Sadly, in the prayer, I had a slight spelling mishap. As I was preparing to open all four of the social media platforms that I use, I erased a section of the prayer. It was gone,
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSOctober 9, 2023Prayer for the Week:Your witness and purpose are disclosed in the poetry and songs and stories of scripture. Holy Mystery, Sacred Voice, give us strength so your loving affirmation of us is something we can embrace and affix within us. Whether it is the daily grind of life or a soul-devouring sadness that can appear so unexpectedly, we need to know you, trust you, and
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGSOctober 8, 2023God is good! That is a very old and common statement made by people of faith, yet what does it mean for God, in Genesis 1, to declare human beings to be good? The word in ancient Hebrew is towb, and it is used in many different ways in different passages of the Old Testament. But what makes it sort of interesting is the word