Thoughts on Life and Worship

  We have finally put 2020 in the rear-view mirror!   We never saw it coming, but the year “that will live in infamy” ran us over like a Mac Truck. 2020 has been very painful.   We’ve been isolated with shut-downs to “flatten the curve” and quarantined folks who may not be sick but may have been exposed.   Some people have lost their jobs and many businesses have closed their doors, never to open again.   Worst of all, many of us have loved ones or friends who have succumbed to the virus.   We’ll never see them again or hear their voice this side of heaven.   Too many of us have felt that grief. I’m sure you’re as glad as I am to move on down the road into 2021.   The question remains, what will this new year bring for us? We’ve got lots of questions, to be sure.   Now that we have effective vaccines available, how long will it take until we’ve reached “herd immunity” so that we can return to some sense of normalcy?   2020 was a year of deep political animosity.   With a new year a

COVID-19 has hit us hard.   I’m writing this column from home where I am convalescing from the virus which I contracted over four weeks ago.   Fortunately, my symptoms are abating and I am regaining my energy.   Not everyone has been so fortunate.   A colleague our mine succumbed to the virus two days before Thanksgiving.   Even in my small world, I’m aware of loved ones who have passed and others who are in very serious trouble because of CV-19.   I don’t even want to imagine what the coming weeks and months might bring with the virus-friendly conditions of winter and the strong possibility of another surge because of holiday festivities.   But hope is on the horizon.   Just this week, Britain approved the use of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.   Approval for the two vaccines that have been submitted to our own FDA seems immanent.   Within weeks, front-line health care workers and residents in long-term care should begin to receive the first of millions of life-saving vaccines in our

  Join us this Sunday night on Zoom for prayer meeting.  Here's the invitation.  Make sure you have Zoom uploaded to your device and click on this link.  Hope to see you at 6:00 P.M.  (And hopefully, this link will work!) Join Zoom Meeting https://us04web.zoom.us/j/78940725608?pwd=V25CaGhzRGtrTE9MbHVzNGtJdWxwZz09 Meeting ID: 789 4072 5608 Passcode: URBm6t

November 19, 2020 Dear church family,  I’m writing this letter from home as I’m still warding off the effects of COVID, twelve days after my first symptoms.   I have been blessed by your many expressions of prayer support and concern that I have received since first becoming ill.   And it has been necessary because my case nearly took a turn towards pneumonia.   So, in this season of Thanksgiving, I am very grateful for your love and support and God’s mercy towards me.   And it’s not just me, while the results of a test for one church staff member remains pending, but likely positive, all of us have been infected.   That reality, of course, has raised concerns and the question of when we should resume in-person worship.   In the meantime, the Governor has issued Level 3 Mitigation Strategies for the entire state to begin on Friday, November 20.   The trajectory of infection and danger is clear.   This is a good time to pull back to recorded services on-line.   Just today, we also

As I write this, it is several days after our national election and we still don’t know who won the presidency.  A lot of Americans are on edge while we wait the outcome in a handful of critical states.  Law enforcement departments in large cities are wondering if the outcome will trigger a violent reaction in their streets.  In the run-up to this election, I have pondered a fascinating question: how would Jesus have voted if he were an American citizen today?  There are many Christians who would quickly wave the question away, doubting that Jesus would even bother to vote. They reason that Jesus wasn’t concerned with political matters.  He was singularly focused on the Kingdom of God.  And I would certainly agree with them.  But I don’t think the question of political engagement for Jesus-followers is that simple.  After all, Jesus did say that people should “render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s.”  I take that to mean that since we are all beneficiaries of the rule of governm

  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, there’s panic, fear, and anger infecting their souls.

  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 merchant where he learned a trade in accounting.   Mentored

  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 combined church boards convened for our monthly meeting.   I acknowledged

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 were scorned, even persecuted to the point o

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 military, but my father and father-in-la