Thoughts on Life and Worship

Most of the large protests and violence are over.  That’s good.  At this point, I don’t see a danger that the issue of social justice and systemic racism is going away anytime soon.  In my opinion, that’s good, too.  We have some work to do.  Anyone who reads the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament) should be fully aware that God is deeply concerned about issues of justice and concern for the poor.  The themes are ever-present in the wisdom literature of Psalms and Proverbs.  The prophets are bold and state it clearly, “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8). For the most part of its history, the Church has fulfilled that mandate.  When pandemics struck the Roman Empire, Christians courageously cared for all the sick, even if the afflicted weren’t believers.  At the time of the earliest plagues, Christians ...

July 5, 2020 Ephesians 1:3-10 Introduction: Stories (Narratives) Guide Our Lives Life…human existence is a story. Stories trace the actions and interactions of people with each other and the world as we know it or wish to know it. Stories have been called “equipment for living.” There are a multitude of stories (or what we might also call narratives) in the world which determine our values and actions. There are family stories. And who knows that better than the young couple who has been married for only six months. Remember that season of life? Remember the tension as you and your spouse were trying to sort out the values – sometimes competing values – that came from two different family stories? Tough times. It’s a good thing we had stars in our eyes! Then there’s America’s story with all of its romantic rugged individualism and heroic sacrifice. But it also includes nearly centuries of slavery and the doctrine of eminent domain which brought unspeakable tragedy ...