I know I talked a lot on Sunday. I’m sorry. My hope is that we will continue to unpack a lot of it over the next few weeks. And, really, I’m clearly not that sorry because I’m about to say some more stuff I didn’t get to on Sunday. As many of you know, I love to talk about hell. …
Come, Ye Sinners
I lamented in church last Sunday that I miss the altar call. Certainly, it is damaging in a lot of ways. However, what I like about it is it puts a person to a decision. If Jesus is, in the words of theologian Schubert Ogden, the decisive re-presentation of God in that the words and works of Jesus put a …
Trinity Sunday Sermon
Some folks asked that I post my sermon from last Sunday. So, here it is. ~Scott Friday night, Lisa and I attended a modern dance performance by the Bruce Wood Dance Project. Sadly, it was an unexpected memorial for Mr. Wood, who died just a couple of weeks ago of pneumonia and heart failure, the ultimate end of a decades-long …
Go Ye Therefore
This Sunday is Trinity Sunday, so that will be our subject. There is certainly a lot to be said about it. However, I want to take this space to touch on another subject that is raised by our lectionary texts. One of the only places in the Christian Testament that uses a clear Trinitarian formula (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost) …
The Spirit is Moving
This Sunday is Pentecost, the birth of the Church. It is characterized as a magical, mysterious event where the Spirit of God comes upon the people with wind and fire. We often consider it unique, something that happened (or maybe didn’t) long ago. We commemorate it each year as a memory that is not our own. But my experience is …
Keep at it
I’ve been rewatching HBO’s The Wire lately. It’s a great show that humanizes the various kinds of systemic injustice we see around us so much that we no longer see it. Almost everyone is trapped in his or her particular role in “the game.” This, and his huge ego, inspires Tommy Carcetti to run for mayor of Baltimore. When he …
The Best Defense is Love
Christianity has always been a defensive faith, even from birth. Our lectionary texts this week bear witness to this. In Acts 17.22-31, we find Paul in Athens making an argument. He is trying to convince the Athenians that they had been worshiping his God all along and that, if they did not soon recognize, they would be condemned. In 1 …
Mansions in the Sky
There have been a lot of images of the afterlife offered over the course of human history. Billy Collins wrote a poem about it, appropriately titled, “The Afterlife,” in which he imagines the fate of different people according to each person’s own beliefs. Some are reincarnated as animals, some become bits of energy, some await judgment. It’s an interesting …
The Sheepgate
Most of what I know about sheep, which is very little, comes from the Bible. I know that many people to whom Jesus spoke were shepherds. Talk of sheep was a vital and timely metaphor for them; for us, not so much. Jesus didn’t use dog metaphors or car metaphors or computer metaphors, which means that we have to do …
Traveling with Strangers
After Jesus was crucified, Luke (24.13-35) tells us that two disciples were walking to Emmaus when a stranger began to walk alongside them. They looked sad as they spoke about all that had happened: Jesus’ ministry and judgment, the crucifixion and the resurrection. The stranger inquired about their conversation, perhaps wondering why they looked sad when their story appeared to …