Thoughts on Life and Worship

  My wife and I just returned from a week of vacation.   For the first four days, we didn’t have internet or phone access.   It was good soul-cleansing therapy.   I recommend it.   But it didn’t take long, listening to the radio on our road trip to western Iowa, to get immersed again in the mire of political angst that has engulfed our culture.   It’s a toxic environment, to be sure.   And people of faith are not immune.   Many who claim to be followers of Jesus have allowed themselves to be swallowed up in the hatred and anger of this political season.   Family tensions are deepening, as relatives on opposing sides don’t talk with each other or, if they do, their conversation becomes heated and destructive.   Doesn’t matter if they’re progressive or conservative. Like so many in our polarized culture, these angst-filled Christians feel that if their side loses, it will likely be the end of our country as we know it.   Consequently,...

  This will come as no surprise to my congregation, but my wife and I have been obsessed with Hamilton on Disney+.   We’ve watched it numerous times; sometimes with friends and sometimes just the two of us.   We canceled our subscription so that we can move on.   Have you seen it?   It is historically accurate and terrific entertainment, to be sure.   And the film director did an incredible job catching closeups and angles that transcend even the theater-goer’s experience.   But beyond its entertainment value, the musical has multiple layers of meaning.   For my wife and I, that is the reason we watched it so many times.   It kept unfolding like a beautiful flower to reveal new insights and surprises each time we viewed it.   Most satisfying to us, it is a story of redemption.     Alexander Hamilton was born an illegitimate child on an island in the Caribbean. He was orphaned when his mother died and raised by a prosperous ...

  We have been wrestling with the effects of the COVI-19 pandemic for half a year.   Can you believe it?   My sense is that navigating the challenges of this season will get harder before it gets easier.   Everything I’ve been reading in the news and in my professional circle points in that direction.   School districts are scrambling to figure out how they are going to fulfill their educational mandate in just a few weeks.   Sports schedules are being diminished or shredded before the season begins.   What in the world are ESPN and Fox Sports going to do with canceled seasons?   Think of the lost revenue!   Beer sales will likely slump.   (That may not be a bad thing.)   In the meantime, some cities still have riots in the streets and our national politics are absolutely toxic.   We’re in a tough place.   People of faith have not escaped the cultural anxiety that has enveloped us all.   Earlier this week, our combi...

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 ...

Maybe it’s time…time to take a knee.  I may lose some friends on this, so please hear me out to the end. If you follow professional sports and especially if you listen to sports-talk radio, you know that taking a knee during the national anthem to protest systemic racism against black people has returned as a very hot topic.  And support for the protest is gaining momentum among influential people in professional sports.  This past week, Bill O’Brien, coach of the Houston Texans, said that he would take a knee with his players during the national anthem as an act of solidarity with them in their protest.  Also, this week, Roger Goodell, the Commissioner of the National Football League encouraged teams to sign former quarterback, Colin Kapernick, the person who started the kneeling protest in 2016. Remember, it was Goodell who ordered all members of all teams to stand during the anthem just two years ago.      I never served in the m...

I don’t know about your FaceBook feed, but mine has been filled with wedding anniversary announcements virtually every day of this month.   It is June, after all, and that’s when a lot of folks tie the knot with winter in the rear-view mirror and the joys of summer living just ahead.   I’ve seen ten-year, fifteen-year, up to fifty-five-year celebrations.   And we should celebrate.   A good marriage takes a good deal of work. Roman Catholics call marriage a “sacrament.”   I’m a Baptist and we’re not supposed to be sacramental.   But general Baptist distinctives can sometimes be difficult to define because freedom of individual conscience is one of our deepest held values.   I’m with the Catholics on this one.   Of course, as a Protestant, I probably define sacrament a bit different than my Catholic brethren.   No need to quibble.   Along with the Catholics, I see God actively working smack dab in the middle of Christian marriage....