I will be brief this week. First, I want to thank everyone that helped out with and participated in our Holy Week and Easter activities. It’s a busy time of year in church life and we wouldn’t be able to do it without contributions from a lot of folks. Because it is a busy time of year, every minister I …
Looking For a Miracle
Tomorrow is Easter, the day that Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, the day that, for many, defines what the faith is entirely about. I have to admit, I always have a little trouble making the shift from Lent to Eastertide, the season between Easter and Pentecost. Maybe I’m just a Lent kind of guy with a dark turn of …
The Prophetic Act
Last Sunday, we talked about the prophet, Jeremiah, and the circumstances under which the book that bears his name was produced. I read a lot of history, which means that my mind was packed with a lot of details, which rarely serves me well. I got into the weeds a bit, so let me see if I can narrow this …
Belief and Judgment
Last Sunday’s conversation was wide-ranging, befitting a couple of scripture passages (Ephesians 2.1-10; John 3.14-21) that are rich in meaning. Most of our dialog focused on John as it contains what is probably the most memorized verse of scripture in the Christian faith, 3.16. As I still remember it from my childhood: “For God so loved the world that He …
The Conversion of Paul
Last week we talked about the Apostle Paul. It is hard to read Paul with fresh eyes, without the jaundice of Augustine, Luther, Calvin, and the Enlightenment. Through those interpreters, Paul has become more rigid, shriller, and more pedantic. It is hard to unhear all of those voices, so I have to reconstruct my apparatus for reading Paul every time …
Taking Up the Cross
Sorry about the cold last Sunday. Still learning about the building’s reaction to crazy Texas weather. So our conversation was brief, but good. I shared a little (maybe a lot) about the context of Romans. Paul is often read through the eyes of previous interpreters and, in our contemporary context, Romans is often the source of our ideas about what …
Suffering and Redemption
Because Lent is a time when we tend to talk a lot about sin, I endeavored on Sunday to explain my framework for thinking about sin. Some folks asked for a write-up, so here it is if you’re interested. The reason this alternative view is important is that sin, in the Christian mindset, is thought to be responsible for evil, …
My Understanding of Sin
Because Lent is a time when we tend to talk a lot about sin, I endeavored on Sunday to explain my framework for thinking about sin. It differs from things we might have heard growing up in a modern American Christian context, whether Catholic or Evangelical. In the spirit of this church’s emphasis on questioning and conversation, I am not …
Walking, Running, and Soaring
I recently started marathon training. The program I’m using requires me to run five days each week, totaling anywhere from thirty to eighty miles. There is rarely a day when my legs don’t feel either sore or just dead, useless slabs of meat. Each day, it is hard to go out for that day’s run. The first mile is hard. …
Calling Again: An Apology
I didn’t do a very good job last Sunday. I’m sorry. Ironically, the service was primarily about vocational call, so I spent a good bit of my opening proclaiming how pleased I am with my call and, by implication, how well-suited I am to it. Then, as someone was speaking, I realized I was utterly unprepared to respond. In my …