Last night was good. As has become our annual tradition, we made a lot of food and bought a lot of candy. Good friends come over to help us eat and drink and pass out candy to thousands of kids that swarm our neighborhood. As always, it was delightful seeing all the tiny adorable kids in their tiny adorable costumes. …
The Freedom to Be Formed
We have just passed Juneteenth and we are quickly approaching the Fourth of July, so freedom is on our minds. Perhaps it is always on our minds as freedom-loving Americans. And we are a Baptist church (it’s true!), so freedom is at the heart of who we are. However, Paul did not write in a time of freedom. Everyone lived …
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 …
From Death into Life
This is the season when we sit with death and find the way to new life. Doug Pagitt says that every preacher has four sermons that get preached over and over and over. I guess this is one of my four. I’ll take it. Last night was our Maundy Thursday service. It was a very Church in the Cliff night. …
Holy Week: A Meditation on Death
Next week is Holy Week, the culmination of Lent and the gateway to Eastertide. During Holy Week, we remember the last week of Jesus’ life and the death that has come to mean so much. Growing up in a prosperous Southern Baptist church, we didn’t do Holy Week, or even Lent, for that matter. We talked about Palm Sunday, but …
Mostly Dead
When Fezzik and Inigo Montoya bring Westley to Miracle Max, they are sure that Westley is dead. They do not know so much, as Max explains, “It just so happens that your friend here is only mostly dead. There’s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead.” It seems that Michael Goldman, who wrote The Princess Bride, is a …
The Meaning of Baptism (Plus: Location Change!)
Note that this Sunday Kidd Springs Rec Center is closed for some maintenance, so we are relocating for the week. Fred and Ashley have graciously offered their home, 410 E. 5th Street on the South side of Lake Cliff Park, for our Sunday service. Next week, we will return to Kidd Springs. I have a terrible memory, but I remember …
All Saints, All Souls
The fun and frolic of Halloween is over for the year, with empty candy wrappers and well-worn costumes set aside as evidence of the revelry. Our friend Stephanie Wyatt used to remind me that when changes are happening and people are scared, we like to throw parties. It’s a way of trying to embrace the mystery rather than run from …
Shepherding the Wind
One of my all-time favorite teaching moves was when my theology teacher used the movie Contact to help us seminary novices get a handle on the idea that our talk about God has a story to it (in particular, Contact was a springboard for us to talk about the doctrine of revelation – that point of numinous connection human beings …
Celebration and Mourning (Plus: Holy Week, Easter, and a Vote
Holy Week Easter Vote on Pastoral Resident This Sunday, Palm Sunday, is the beginning of Holy Week. The liturgical year began with Advent and the birth of Jesus. One would think that its culmination would be in the death of Jesus after a full year. However, our tradition places that event in the middle of the year signifying that death …