ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
April 30, 2024
Donna and I will be flying to Denver in a couple of weeks and then driving to Alliance, Nebraska, in the panhandle of Nebraska. When my father died at a very young age, more than 55 years ago, my mother was completely unprepared. They were living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where my dad was a professor in the Education Department at the University. They had no burial plots, but my mother’s parents did. They were back in my mom’s hometown of Alliance, so that is where my father is buried. For the last thirty years, especially after my mother made the decision to be cremated, she would tell us kids, “Don’t worry about making a trip to Alliance when I die. Do whatever is easiest with my ashes.” When it came to death, both her faith and sensibility shaped her thinking. Her words were sincere, yet the four of us (I have three siblings) never really thought of another option. For us, mom needed to be buried next to dad. We all know that nothing of the people they were or the impact they had upon this world is or will be buried in Alliance, NE, yet it is symbolic for us. There is something sort of comforting and sacred about knowing their remains will be together and their names side-by-side etched into stone. Grief and healing and the process by which a person moves from one to the other are unique to the circumstances, the people involved, and so many other influences. I am in no way suggesting that what we are doing is a model. If anything, I encourage people to create symbols that will help bring and sustain healing. We are formed and shaped by the symbols around us, specifically the ones to which we give power and the ones that communicate stories of hope, love, and joy. It will be good to be with family, to visit Alliance, as it was a place where I spent a lot of my childhood summers, and to place my mother’s ashes next to my father.
Guide us, O Source of Life and Healing, in the work necessary to restore and reconnect the broken pieces of life. Amen.
Month: April 2024
04-29-24
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
April 29, 2024
Prayer for the Day: Holy and Ever-present God, you have called forth this body, your church, and you have given us a task—a responsibility. We are not to judge; we are not called to layer on more guilt or grief; we definitely have not been called to suggest you love and are present to some more than others. Sometimes such things are done in your name, but you have called us to the simple task of embodying Christ Jesus, who came into the world and stood alongside humanity. It is our task to bring to life your mercy for those who feel as if they stand outside your forgiveness, to manifest your compassion for those who feel as if they have been tossed to the side, and to provide a glimpse of your unconditional and relentless love to those who have convinced themselves that who they are or what they have done has left them beyond the reach of your grace. We’ve heard your calling and now seek the strength and empowered purpose that come through the Spirit. Amen.
04-28-24
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
April 28, 2024
The Greater Houston Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) was really quite wonderful. If you read my Etching from yesterday, you know I was looking forward to hearing the keynote speaker, Rev. Dr. Dawn Weaks. She did not disappoint. There was also some wonderful worship, great conversations over lunch, and many hugs from folks who I have come to love and respect. One of my takeaways that I will continue to reflect upon was connected to a usual conversation topic of things we’d like to change or improve upon in our congregations. What troubles me is the number of items that are not all that significant in the whole scheme of things. Not to be dismissive, but as Dawn had talked numerous times about resurrection, some of the side conversations sure sounded as if we were simply putting some new makeup on the dead body. Combing the hair on a corpse ain’t changing the pulse. Still dead! The church needs to name the poison it has been feeding itself. That’s probably a little dark, though when they call a Code Blue in the hospital, they show up with a crash cart that contains more than blush to brighten the cheeks of the person who has flatlined. Cypress Creek Christian Church still has plenty of work to do, but I feel as if there is new life pumping through the veins of this body. Tough decisions have been made in recent years, and some of them have caused discomfort, even bringing some people to the decision of leaving the church. Everyone of those brings grief to my soul, but as Dawn reminded us a few times, we cannot be defined by the “tyranny of the minority,” and we cannot allow a few to stand in the way of what God is calling the church to do.
Holy God, there is discomfort in the journey to new life. In fact, there is often death before resurrection. Give us the courage and strength to remain faithful, while always leading with love. Amen.
04-27-24
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
April 27, 2024
Today is the Assembly of the Disciple Churches in the Greater Houston area. We have five people (maybe a sixth) from Cypress Creek Christian Church headed to Taylor Lake Christian Church for this gathering, and last I heard, there were well over 120 registered. I am looking forward to hearing Rev. Dawn Weaks speak on her book, Break Through: Trusting God For Big Change in Your Church. Dawn and her husband, Joe, are the Co-Pastors of Connection Christian Church in Odessa, a church that made the difficult decision to do something dramatically different. On the back of the book, there is a line:
“This is the story of what happened when a little Texas church’s ministers and lay leaders dared to place their desperate, dying selves into the radically loving hands of God.”
Maybe it’s not a church community, but I wonder how often we as individuals dare to place our desperate, dying selves into the radically loving hands of God. There are a couple of challenges in doing so. First, there is the relinquishing of control, suggesting that maybe God can see something that we cannot. Second, and somewhat related, is trusting God to walk with us even when that journey is uncomfortable and not where we would have chosen to go. And third, when we offer some dying part of ourselves to the radically loving hands of God, there is usually resurrection, but resurrection often challenges us to love with the same kind of love that gave us new life.
Where in your individual life or where in our collective life is there something dying that might need to be placed in the tomb and declared dead? Are we willing to trust God to do what God does in those moments?
Though it causes great discomfort to face what is dying, O Merciful God, we pray for the capacity to trust the story of Jesus. There, we find new and unexpected life emerging from despair and hopelessness. Give us the courage to trust you and the gift of new life. Amen.
04-26-24
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
April 26, 2024
This Sunday, I am preaching on the second half of Psalm 22, though it is difficult to understand the second half without knowing the opening words. Of course, those were words Jesus borrowed as he hung upon the cross, “‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” It is a statement of utter despair. Actually, despair seems to fall short in expressing the anguish and emotional torment of betrayal, a feeling as if he has been forgotten by both his disciples and God. Though the cross might present to us an extreme example, there is something very real about the experience of feeling as if one has been forgotten, with no hope. Many of us have cried out in one form or another, “Why God! Why have you turned your back on me?” Perception is reality, even though our faith tells us that God’s presence is eternal. Psalm 139 provides an extensive list of the places we find ourselves, and though we might assume God is not present in some of the more difficult or shadowy places, our faith tells us that God is fully present in every moment and every place. Life is often lived in this tension between what we experience in the moment and what the story of faith tells us. Even Jesus seemed to have his moment.
Thanks for remaining faithful, Gracious and Everlasting God, even when things are rough on my side and I am questioning everything. Amen.
04-25-24
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
April 25, 2024
I have been thinking a lot about forgiveness lately, specifically reflecting on the back and forth between Peter and Jesus found in Matthew 18:21-22,
“Then Peter came and said to him, ‘Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.’”
Peter lived in a world where things were defined based on their limits. For Peter, he understood forgiveness by giving it a structure—a beginning and ending. There was a place where forgiveness started and a place where forgiveness concluded, and I believe his question to Jesus, “As many as seven times?” was a rather liberal and expansive understanding of forgiveness in his mind. I can almost hear him saying it with pride and expecting Jesus to praise him. The response of Jesus, “seventy-seven times,” or it could be translated as “seventy times seven,” is the merger of perfection. The number seven symbolized perfection, completeness, or could be understood as representing God. Forgiveness, in Jesus’ response, was seeking to remove the measurements by which Peter and others attempted to define forgiveness. Instead, Jesus provided a picture of God’s forgiveness that had absolutely no boundaries. That’s sort of unnerving because we want limits and structures by which we can more easily explain and understand forgiveness, but Jesus wants us to glimpse God’s capacity to forgive, and once every limitation we have imposed on forgiveness is dismantled, then we are invited to match it in our own lives. Yes, that is unnerving.
In Jesus, you have given us a picture and a model for forgiveness. Holy God, give us the courage to dismantle the limitations we have placed upon your gracious mercy—limitations we have too often enjoyed in our own lives. Amen.
04-24-24
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
April 24, 2024
Fred Rogers from Mr. Rogers fame said, “I don’t think that the basics that kids need have changed in 10,000 years.” In a world where new scientific discoveries are happening on a daily basis and new technology is coming into our lives as fast as we are willing to spend the money, Mr. Rogers is once again correct in his analysis. Children need the essentials of life, and along with food, water, shelter, healthcare, clean air, and regular sleep, there is a need for security and unconditional love that build self-worth, friendships, self-differentiation, self-determination, and creativity. When Jesus said, “Let the children come unto me,” I do not believe he was suggesting that children 20 feet from him be allowed to step forward and be within six inches of him. It was an invitation for the world to make sure every child had access to the fullness of life. This begins with the basics. Otherwise, the Jesus those children would be meeting would be more of a mascot for a worldview that says children (or certain children) are not as valuable in actuality as they are in the hypothetical.
Today is the day to make children an absolute priority, whether those children are playing in the neighbor’s yard, trying to get adequate healthcare in rural Georgia, seeking shelter along our southern border, going about daily tasks just inside the border of Israel, or searching for a place that won’t be bombed in Gaza. Not one of these children, Merciful God, should ever be collateral damage in the political struggles of adults. And if we think we can excuse one, then no child is safe. Give us the courage to find a way that may not yet be visible to us—a way that you have been revealing to us for at least 10,000 years. Amen.
04-23-24
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
April 23, 2024
This one is a long one… my apologies.
Have you ever noticed that when someone summarizes what they’ve heard, what they offer as a summary is what they heard through their personal filters? Like many of you, I have gone to hear a speaker with some friends, and then afterward, we grabbed some dinner or coffee. The conversation around the table has often been fascinating as what I heard and what others didn’t hear said a lot about the filters through which we were listening. Something said early by the speaker might have struck me profoundly, and everything after that moment did not influence me enough to get me past those opening words.
This is where I find the closing words of Luke’s Gospel to be a fascinating experiment in what people heard and what they assumed was being said. In Luke 24:44, Jesus said:
‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.’
The only words of the resurrected Jesus that we have spoken to the disciples in Luke’s Gospel are words of peace, an invitation to look at his hands and feet, and then a statement of expectation that his disciples focus on the words of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms, specifically those words written about Jesus.
Here is where one’s summary is extraordinarily important. What words from Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms are we to focus upon? What words was Jesus referencing? I could provide a quick summary based on passages I like from Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms, but was Jesus referring to Bruce’s favorite Biblical hits? How a person summarizes what Jesus was specifically referencing will dramatically shape what a person thinks the church’s purpose and witness are.
Now many will probably disagree, but I believe Jesus, as it is told in Luke’s Gospel, is wanting us to reflect on the clearest purpose statement Jesus would provide his followers. In Luke 4, Jesus referenced the Prophet Isaiah, while also giving a nod to the Jubilee teachings of Moses and the community’s remembrances of God’s librating power in the Exodus story as shared in the Psalm. Jesus does this in Luke 4:18-19,
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
How might someone seeking the fulfillment of those words from Luke 4 differ from someone who focused on, perhaps, the “woe” statements by Jesus in Luke 6?
But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.
Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep.
You can see how those would be very different.
It sure would have been nice had Jesus said during his resurrection appearance, “Let me summarize for you the top six items found in the words of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms that you need to know. Start with these…” But he did not.
For that reason, we are left struggling and arguing over where to begin. In this, I will offer another idea. In Luke 9, Jesus said,
“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”
Maybe a measuring stick in determining the specific words of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms that Jesus was referencing might be, “‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it” (Luke 9:23-24). If your summary of the key words from Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms requires nothing of you in any sort of profound or challenging way, then maybe your summary of the key words is off a little? But if your summary pushes you, even with some trepidation, to pick up the symbol of self-sacrificing love, then maybe your summary is on the right path. There is always room to grow, but this following Jesus will include some unpleasant and some not so easy-going moments.
Help me, Gracious God, to filter the key teachings and challenging instructions through a lens that honors your self-giving upon the cross. I could easily filter out anything that is demanding or might cause me discomfort, but I’m pretty sure such a life would not reflect Jesus or the life he was hoping his followers would live. Continue to put before me his life-witness as a way of measuring my own life of faith. Amen.
04-22-24
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
April 22, 2024
A Sort of Prayer Based on Psalm 23:
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
I’ve never technically had a shepherd, but the image is comforting to my soul.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters;
he restores my soul.
The amount of exhaustion and spiritual fatigue leaves me yearning for just such a place.
He leads me in right paths
for his name’s sake.
To do something that genuinely honors the name of the One who is the Source of life and love requires me to get out of my self-serving lane and into a lane that respects the self-giving character of God.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
I fear no evil;
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff—
they comfort me.
Sometimes I think being left alone will bring joy, but there is something ever-affirming in that holy
nudge that reminds me of how precious I am.
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
Though I did not return the RSVP for this meal, it is good for me to step outside the echo chamber of the self-admiration society.
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Too often, I forget to pause long enough and with enough awareness to see those parts of my life where abundance is truly present, reminding me of who is at the Source.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
my whole life long.
We find a dwelling just beyond a door left wide open, and we hear a joyous invitation beckoning us to enter and enjoy your hospitality and kindness, O Gracious God of All. Amen.
04-21-24
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
April 21, 2024
In yesterday’s Etching, I referenced the opening words of Psalm 19, but many people know the closing words much better:
Let the words of my mouth
and the meditations of my heart
be pleasing to you,
Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
This section speaks of our words and thoughts as being “pleasing” or “acceptable” to God, though I also like another translation that suggests it is not just about pleasing God but “aligning” with God. Those might sound the same, but what is the motivation? Aligning, in my opinion, has a different starting place. If I am trying to please someone, I am often trying to get something from that person. Is that the way God works? Do I please God so God loves me? Or, am I seeking to align myself with God as a joyful response to the belief that God already loves me beyond measure? My concern with words like “pleasing” or “acceptable” is how they are often used in manipulative ways, suggesting that someone is not pleasing or acceptable to God. And that tends to be followed by a list of things that one must do if one wants to be pleasing or acceptable. But notice the last line: “Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” Those are not the results of good words and good thoughts, but they are the starting point from which we are able to get a strong footing in our joyful desire to align our lives more fully with the ways of God.
My gratitude is my beginning place, Gracious and Loving God, for I do not need to earn or obtain your favor. It is a gift of divine generosity, and in a spirit of thankfulness, I seek to align my life as one who is embracing and celebrating that glorious news. Amen.
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