Posts from 2011

Voice lessons by Jenny Williams (1/6/2011)
...d to observe Christmas, Epiphany, and the Baptism of the Lord as part of one unified and extended celebration. There’s a lot of revelation going on there. Christ’s identity is revealed to shepherds, wise men, John the Baptist, and those gathered on the banks of the Jordan. The revelation continues on the Sundays after the Epiphany. God appeals to our senses. Whereas Ragan talked about seei...
Truth Dazzles Gradually by Kyle Childress (1/12/2011)
...– a financial commitment that provided extra incentive to practice. Adams tells this delightful story of his first year of learning to play the piano in his book, Piano Lessons. Yet learning to play was a daunting task, particularly given his already demanding schedule. He found it difficult and frustrating; he couldn’t simply sit down and make the beautiful music he wanted. There were scale...
Repent: The Kingdom Is Near by Janice Love (1/20/2011)
...-9</a>, <a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=162524897">I Corinthians 1:10-18</a>, <a href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=162524922">Matthew 4:12-23</a> Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near. ~Matthew 4:17b And so it begins. The history of the world shifts, never to be the same again. For over ten years now I have had the joy of being part of the Christian Seasons calendar te...
Still the Crucified by Doug Lee (2/3/2011)
...wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. Paul’s description of his preaching is enough to stop any preacher in her or his tracks. It is certainly enough to stop this one. What do I regard as essential in my preaching? Do I rely on sounding scholarly or worldly wise? Do I trust in having something new and captivating to say? W...
Reality Hunger by Ragan Sutterfield (2/10/2011)
...a> Reality hunger. I read a book by that title last summer and the title, more than the book, describes what many of us are feeling these days. We long for the concrete, the real, the hard surfaced world against all of the abstractions of the Economy, of the powers and institutions that seem to dictate our lives without our understanding the what and who and why of their existence. And yet, ...
Realist of Grace by Brian Volck (2/16/2011)
...a> “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” Jesus commands. That’s nowhere near as rosy and naïve as the bumper sticker I once came across, in a boutique full of inspirational art and Buddhist tchotckes, that read: “Love your enemies and you won’t have any.” There once was at time that I, too, believed I could change the world and others by wishing or willing it so. I was fo...
The Economics of Anxiety by Debra Dean Murphy (2/24/2011)
... and hymns were chosen for worship. You might—depending on your congregation’s current needs and challenges—revisit, rework, recycle, as it were, the riches of the lectionary cycle. But because Easter is so late this year—a day short of the latest date possible—there was no eighth Sunday After Epiphany in 2008 or 2005 or 2002. In fact, the factors that determine the date of the Church's prime m...
What it is, and is not, to be an EP Endorser by Brent Laytham (2/26/2011)
...th persons that I care about, even stalk my teenage children. But it isn't the kind of relationship that could be described as a school for subversive friendship. Why? Because it doesn't really ask much of me. Subversive friendships, on the other hand, can truly rock our world, since they are built on the chief cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20). So I thank God that we didn't choose to call associating ...
Valley Girls (and Guys) by Jenny Williams (3/4/2011)
...ey and the one I grew up in (the San Gabriel Valley) could get away for a week to find God and a little fresh air. We hiked among towering pines, sat on rocks to sing songs around a fire, and when we did give in to sleep, did so in log cabins. Lasting relationships were forged for campers, both among themselves and between them and God. <a name="more"></a> We’ve all heard (and poss...
God Abstracted by Kyle Childress (3/8/2011)
...to bread; religion – spectacular religion which will make the crowds want to follow you anywhere; and politics – to get the power to make things turn out the way you want. <a name="more"></a> Jesus resists each temptation. It is not that Jesus is opposed to economics, politics, or religion. In fact, in his ministry, Jesus does talk – often – about economics, the dangers of wealth, a...
Being Born From Above by Janice Love (3/15/2011)
...eligious.” It goes against our instinct though, as dying does, to blindly go as an individual or as a church where God might send us. Especially in a culture that likes to encourage careful decision making, planning, saving for retirement (okay, yes, I am an instinctual planner that likes to have some sense of control, which is why I don’t like to fly in airplanes where I can’t even...
Engaging Jesus by Doug Lee (3/22/2011)
...erations of slotting him in our christological taxonomies, tradition, and piety. But time and again, Jesus eludes our fully apprehending him. Last week Nicodemus approached Jesus and began by uttering those deadly words, “We know that you are….” As that conversation progresses, it is clear that this doctor of the faith remains in the dark when it comes to Jesus. In similar fashion, the Samar...
Internalizing what Externals Mean by Jake Wilson (3/31/2011)
...ye wear helps us not only to see but to be seen. In this image obsessed culture we are tempted to continually modify the external, often in an effort to avoid the work of tending to the inner life which cannot be so easily dressed up. God, however, is not so easily distracted by the temptation of the external. This episode in the life of God’s people is a brilliant example of the declaration ...
Snorting at Death by Debra Dean Murphy (4/7/2011)
...nd the start of Holy Week and it’s not the scent of spring flowers in the air but death--as shrouded, four-days-dead Lazarus is stinking up the place. Dry bones are on Ezekiel’s mind—brittle, rattling remains beyond the stages of rot and stench. “Our hope is lost,” the people in exile say, “we are cut off completely” (37:11). The Psalm, too, the de Profundis, commonly read at funerals or ...
The Way Down by Brian Volck (4/12/2011)
...; Part 2, No.65 I’m not qualified to judge the theological soundness of that old saw, “God draws straight with crooked lines.” We know that Palm Sunday’s readings are a push into the arcing current of a great river. We know the river flows toward the unimaginable Paschal triumph. But the readings today have one and only one direction: down. Jesus enters Jerusalem triumphantly, in a pro...
Why Do You Weep? by Ragan Sutterfield (4/22/2011)
...their hopes for a new reality gone. But Mary remained with the question—she stayed with the empty tomb, the trace of the Lord she still loved, the death she didn’t claim to understand. It is by staying that she is present for the questioning of her perception—“Woman, why do you weep?” It is a question that means everything—it is a question that indicates an event that’s about to h...
Seeing the Lord by Kyle Childress (4/26/2011)
...bowski, Walter is talking to Dude. Donny, their other close friend, keeps trying to interrupt and ask a question. Walter dismisses Donny with a line that has become famous, “Shut-up Donny, you’re out of your element.” (Or something like that.) In other words, when you’re out of your element, what you say doesn’t make sense. In John 20, the resurrection of Jesus didn’t make sense to Thom...
What’s goin’ on? by Jenny Williams (5/4/2011)
...ma bin Laden has dominated discourse over the past week. In the wake of his death, some people are throwing parties, some are ready to break out the duct tape and plastic sheeting, and the rest of us are watching the world go mad. Again. Jesus asks the two disciples to explain “what things” have been happening in Jerusalem. They get most of it right, and even offer a nice little testimony, but ...
Followers by Janice Love (5/10/2011)
... the early church, after the disciples’ baptism in the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and Peter’s surprisingly fearless sermon, is certainly a rosy one. Where is this church, because I want to go there?! Perhaps Paul’s account of the struggles at the church in Corinth better match our own experience of the church in North America. Paul’s eloquence in his reflections on the cross of Christ...
Preparing for Departure by Jake Wilson (5/19/2011)
...are us for the Ascension of the resurrected Christ. On the eve of their last supper together, as Jesus prepared his disciples for his death, the question looming over the young Jesus movement was how to respond to Jesus’ absence. The disciples had followed Jesus through every small town and village from Samaria to Jerusalem. But how do you follow a missing Lord? How could they car...
The Close-at-Hand God by Debra Dean Murphy (5/25/2011)
...ting to passages in the New Testament which speak to the unknowability of the “day or hour” of the Lord’s return. But such proof-texting did little to challenge the core flaw of rapture theology—its fundamental misreading of biblical eschatology. Within the last few days, thankfully, thoughtful essays have appeared which have noted that “tribulation” is a <a title="Patheos Website" href="http://ww...
Gospel Sequel by Doug Lee (5/31/2011)
... while others with a less definite timetable still await a rapture. Meanwhile, on the other side of the divide, scoffing at such expectations is easy, especially after announced deadlines pass. Jesus’ own response resounds as an all-too-obvious rebuke to Rapture-enraptured Christians: “It is not for you to know the times that the Father has set by his own authority.” But what if t...
A Quieter Pentecost by Brian Volck (6/6/2011)
...n’t completed my own initiation so young. From Easter to Ascension, newly-received members (called neophytes, which means “new living things”) wear their white robes each Sunday at liturgy. Like all of us, though far more visibly, they are engaged in mystagogy, forever entering the bottomless mystery of Christ and his people. On Ascension Day, after the readings have been broken open...
“What’s Up” by Ed Searcy (6/11/2011)
...to Jesus and, as a result, has an abundance of love for one another. I know what it is to be filled with gratitude for a congregation that trusts its life to Jesus and, so, is marked by love and affection for one another. Three weeks ago, when the doctors confirmed their suspicions and told me that I have multiple myeloma, I was shocked and sad and grateful. <a name="more"></a> The gr...
Family Ties by Jenny Williams (6/14/2011)
...ight off the bat, “I finally understand what family is all about!” She went on to tell me that a woman in her family, Kelly, just discovered that man she had always known as her father was not indeed her biological father. This discovery completely rocked Kelly’s world. In despair, Kelly asked Shawn in one of their visits, “Will you still be my family member?” Sally told Kelly th...
Here I Am by Janice Love (6/20/2011)
... story I have skirted somewhat with my almost 8 year old son. Maybe because it hits a little too close to home, he being a long awaited (13 years) child. How do I tell him of a God who demands of Abraham the sacrifice of his beloved son, Isaac, as a way to test him? Ah, perhaps there is the rub – the sovereignty of this God we worship who can and will demand, command and test. Now, ...
(Mis)Remembered Words by Brian Volck (6/27/2011)
...ote, “There will be found remaining the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man. I have performed this operation for my own use, by cutting verse by verse out of the printed book, and arranging the matter which is evidently his, and which is as easily distinguishable as diamonds in a dunghill.” <a name="more"></a> He later completed The Life and Morals o...
Jacob, Despite Jacob by Jake Wilson (7/7/2011)
...ep in their hearts, that the great power of preaching lies less in the individual sermon and more in the cumulative effect of preaching week in and week out to the same congregation, to the same community of believers, doubters and seekers…sermons offered Sunday after Sunday, month after month, year after year weave together to have an immeasurable cumulative influence on individuals’ and the cong...
Life Among the Weeds by Ragan Sutterfield (7/13/2011)
...ve understood something important about the wheat that came out of a field of weeds—it was strong and sure, tested by the weeds and able to grow in spite of them. The seeds of that wheat will carry that strength too—it is this seed that a farmer would want to plant next year, not the untested wheat that can’t stand up to the pressures that will inevitably come. The question is one of endurance—o...
Where Strangers Quickly Become Friends by Jamie Gates (7/18/2011)
...amiliar to us; we live with the complexities and beauty of welcoming the immigrant in San Diego/Tijuana every day. We thought we'd be able to contribute a little from our life living as regular border crossers. What we didn't anticipate is the beautiful gift that this weekend became for us as a couple, for our relationship and for our common discipleship. We didn't realize that Beth Newman's re...
Mustard Seeds and Evangelism by Kyle Childress (7/20/2011)
...rom fries to storage buildings to football stadiums. Politicians and economists of every persuasion keep telling us that a bigger economic pie is the answer to everyone’s concerns. Closer to home, every day I receive mailings and emailings on how to grow, be bigger, reach more people, raise massive amounts of money, train more people, build bigger buildings, have a bigger sound system, a bigger ...
Madmen, Destruction, and the Art of God's Patience by Brent Laytham (7/25/2011)
...ch are usually little more than vengeful sentiments in disguise. “A maximum sentence of 21 years? That hardly seems right!” What seldom tempts us in such reactive moments is the posture of lament. What may not even occur to us is the proactive and painstaking work of peace. Perhaps our greatest temptation at such moments is to accept the logic of redemption-through-vio...
The More You Get, the More You Have by Debra Dean Murphy (7/26/2011)
...ifferent sort of meal: John the Baptizer’s head on a platter. And just as women and children are included among the multitude fed on the beach (a detail unique to Matthew’s version of the story), the female sex is also represented in the account of John’s demise: Herodias, sister-in-law of Herod, asks for the head of the Baptist; her nameless daughter, with no detectable squeamishness, delivers th...
For God So Loved the World... by Ekklesia Project (7/28/2011)
...orthodox for others), and not just for those who actually seek first God's kingdom with their whole life (which would be orthodox for still others)—but that God's love overrides the sinfulness of all people, including those who have never heard the message of Christ and those who have heard and have rejected it for some reason. Since God wills all people to be saved, Bell surmises, at some point i...
One Big Happy Family by Brent Laytham (8/5/2011)
... braggadocio followed by “even more” hatred (37:8), conspiracy to kill, deception, and betrayal for 20 pieces of silver. This story of the family of Jacob—our ecclesial story—puts ugly on display. Wandering Arameans or settled herdsmen, our covenant family doesn’t seem to have what it takes to live together “peaceably” (37:4). Some clergy might want to draw solace from this grim portrai...
Embodying God’s Unity in a Fragmented World by C. Christopher Smith (8/9/2011)
...y of our ears: “How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!,” but it is the powerful imagery of the latter two verses of this brief psalm that drive home the depths of the God’s desire for the people of God to live in unity. The psalmist flashes two quick, familiar images into the imaginations of his Israelite audience – first the anointing of the priest Aaron, with the ...
Signposts and Seeds by Jim McCoy (8/17/2011)
...text for the lectionary passages of the day. It is worth wrestling with how these insights shine light on parts of the texts that can be overlooked in more conventional readings: seeing through the “official” policy of “justified,” veiled violence by telling the story from the perspective of victim; turning “the logic of sacred violence” and blood sacrifice on its head, unveiling God’s revelatio...
Follow the Leader by Jessie Larkins (8/22/2011)
...l Peace. Even at a young age, I can clearly remember sensing the irony and nonsense of that phrase. Who makes war to get peace? Now I understand why its author would have suggested that the dominant ethos of our time is the notion of perpetual war for perpetual peace. Now I see why the world is so easy to believe that the means for achieving peace in the world need not match the ends. Why? W...
James Hunter, Neo-Anabaptists, and the Ekklesia Project by Ekklesia Project (8/23/2011)
...scussion of culture and the dynamics of cultural change. In the first of the three essays that make up the book, Hunter debunks conceptions of cultural change which trade in some form of individualism--the notion that changing individual hearts and minds causes cultural change-- and advances a nuanced, social view that gives priority to networks formed by a cultural elite. His accou...
The Far Country by Matthew Morin (8/25/2011)
... heading of “pride” and use it to repeat the old trope about self-righteous Pharisees: “There they go again, those elitist Pharisees—always thinking they are better than everybody else, when in fact they are sinners just like the rest of us.” Or, it might be tempting for us to file this episode under the heading of “nice” and use it to repeat the old trope about everybody’s friend Jesus: “There...
Fallible Church, Deliberate Grace by Doug Lee (8/29/2011)
... in practice. But if ever we wondered whether Jesus were a realist or not, his words in Matthew 18 put that question to rest. The church Jesus envisions is not some idealized community we have not yet discovered or planted, or can’t belong to. The church Jesus envisions is entirely realistic: it is my sinful congregation and yours. We don’t need to be told that sin exists among the saints. We s...
The Reckoning by Janice Love (9/6/2011)
...ey would survive the experience to return to their families. It is this same risk we undertake when we host scripture, actually seeking to encounter a Word from the God whose fury can consume like stubble, whose answer to our “Here I am” will not leave us untransformed. And so we come to the collision of these texts with this time, just over half way through the season after Pentecost, when the ...
The God Who Fits Our Agenda: 9/11 Then and Now by Ekklesia Project (9/11/2011)
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Bread from Heaven by Jake Wilson (9/14/2011)
...id=160" target="_blank">Matthew 20.1-16</a> I’m the oldest of four lively children. As an adult I’m very aware of the strain that my siblings and I put on my parents. Raising children does not come with a “How To” guide and the four Wilson children found every kind of way to put parents to the test. Growing up, my father could often be heard to say in both frustration and resignation, “with y...
So Much Unfairness of Things by Brian Volck (9/20/2011)
...things differently. She might not have been white or middle class, which, she thanks God, she is. She’s even grateful that her daily, sometimes distasteful, encounters with poor blacks and “white trash” remind her that “…one had to have certain things before you could know certain things.” What she knows is this: she lives in a fair and ordered world, each person occupying the place he or she d...
Let Others Decide by Ragan Sutterfield (9/28/2011)
...icular demands of this drought season, to carry out the disciplines necessary to be a gardener. I was glad to claim the title “gardener” and not suffer the heat, time and sweat that would really make me one. Because of this experience, I can understand some of what the Pharisees must have felt as they heard Jesus' parable—they were God's people, the rightful inhabitants of the promise-land, t...
Why Do We Build the Wall? by Ekklesia Project (10/2/2011)
...ssures her that nature’s abundance will provide, she remains doubtful, plagued by fears of economic scarcity. Soon, however, we’re introduced to Hades, Lord of the Underworld. Hades, the “King of mortar, King of bricks,” employs and controls “a million hands” as he builds a great wall. The building project stirs rumors above ground as Eurydice, Orpheus, and Persephone (Hades’ wife, out on vacat...
It's About Us by Debra Dean Murphy (10/6/2011)
... mystery but seemingly little grace.<img class="alignright" src="http://cruzblanca.org/hermanoleon/sem/a/to/28_banquete/banquete00.png" alt="" width="332" height="269" /> In Matthew’s version of the parable of the wedding banquet (would that it was Luke’s!), a king plans a great nuptial feast for his son. Twice he sends slaves to summon the invited guests but, for reasons left unsaid, “t...
Who Decides? by Kyle Childress (10/11/2011)
...aesar that which is his and give unto God that which is his,” as a statement on the separation of Church and State. Only in the most indirect way is this a statement on church and state. It sounds like Jesus is saying that we should balance church and state, God and Caesar; sort of 50/50, half and half kind of approach. Jesus’ interest has little to do with making a statement about the separa...
Leadership Lessons by Jenny Williams (10/20/2011)
...been whiny. Lillian delightfully re-narrated one of the Moses stories and suggested that if he were to be an effective leader he might need to take a course in anger management. I suppose her humorous take on this “prophet like no other” stuck with me, germinating in the dark recesses of my mind, because as I’ve been preaching the Old Testament lections these past many months, I c...
The Deeper and Richer Life of Gratitude by C. Christopher Smith (10/25/2011)
...people certainly knew their share of troubles – being slaves in Egypt, wandering in the desert for forty years, going into exile, and so on – but yet the Psalms, their prayerbook that gave shape to their life together was filled with prayers of thanksgiving like today’s reading from Psalm 107 that celebrate the goodness and the provision of God. And yet, gratitu...
The Terrible Speed of Mercy by Jim McCoy (11/2/2011)
...ove-the-fold NY Times articles and primetime NPR stories. This truly bewildering sensation spawned billboards, talking head reports, and “end of the world” parties. I still shake my head and wonder if the madness in May was not only Harold Camping’s, but also biblical eschatology’s proverbial fifteen minutes of fame. Did the words we needed to speak six months ago have the unintended...
Jesus is Coming - Look Busy by Jessie Larkins (11/9/2011)
...ch year. In my own United Methodist tradition this also happens to be the time of year when Finance committees are urgently preparing 2012 budgets and pastors are nervously writing stewardship sermons in hopes of funding those budgets. This weekend’s gospel text seems to play right into this pattern with a pre-packaged message about stewardship lined up for the occasion. Investing our time, tal...
Lamb and Shepherd: The Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe by Janice Love (11/17/2011)
...year olds (yes, at forty-six my nickname is “the kid”). I try not to look at the poster as it gets my goat, blithely proclaiming that the destination matters not, only the journey is important. Except, of course, the destination in large part determines the journey and without a destination the journey can get pretty lost and chaotic. This coming Sunday, Reign of Christ or Christ the King Sunday, ...
From Where Does Our Help Come? by Jake Wilson (11/23/2011)
...anderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=48">1 Cor. 1:3-9</a> <a href="http://http/lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=48">Mark 13:24-37</a> On the first Sunday of Advent, we enter into a new year with joyful expectation of the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. Advent is a time of waiting and longing for God’s presence, which means that Advent is a season well suited t...
The Living Gospel by Doug Lee (12/1/2011)
...alm 85</a> <a title="2 Peter 3:8-15a" href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=189680855" target="_blank">2 Peter 3:8-15a</a> <a title="Mark 1:1-8" href="http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=189680925" target="_blank">Mark 1:1-8</a> Advent has a powerful way of clarifying our vision because it takes us back to what is most basic. This week the gospel is front and center as our texts ide...
The Church as Highway Department by Ragan Sutterfield (12/6/2011)
...s are able to track changes in the landscape that might indicate a mass grave or the razing of a village. The satellite images also offer a chance, in some cases, of heading off attacks because preceding a major advance the Janjaweed militias will have to clear trees and build roads to allow their forces to move heavy artillery. In another recent NPR story about the history of the American inter...
And it was sufficient by Kyle Childress (12/13/2011)
... woman – really a teenage girl – who embodied extraordinary courage and faith in God to be able to say, “Let it be to me according to your will.” Or to put it more mundanely, Mary said yes. More than one theologian of the church over the centuries has said that the great miracle that surrounded the birth of Jesus was not the miraculous conception of Jesus or the virgin birth, but th...
The Logic of the Incarnation by Debra Dean Murphy (12/20/2011)
...ry different perspectives on the coming of Christ into our world: Luke’s is earthy and political, conveying the historical contingencies (and palpable dangers) that attended the first Advent; John’s is meditative and philosophical, written in academic Greek, locating the “Word made flesh” not in the provincial politics of first-century Palestine but boldly and unapologetically in the sweeping...
To ponder in our hearts by Brian Volck (12/28/2011)
...cs until the 1960s, when the day transformed into the Octave of the Nativity and the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. Those using the Revised Common Lectionary celebrate the Holy Name of Jesus or the First Sunday after Christmas Day. Perhaps the kindest way to understand this confusion is that the mystery of the Incarnation is far too vast for human comprehension. After celebrating, as best w...