ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
April 18, 2026
Albert Schweitzer said, “The purpose of human life is to serve and to show compassion...” He not only said it, but pretty much demonstrated it each day of his life. It is one thing to announce one’s purpose or mission in life. It is something very different when one begins to integrate the ideas into daily practice. I believe an individual’s purpose or mission statement does not necessarily need to look like everyone else’s. We are beautifully unique, yet whatever it is should resemble some key features associated with the life and teachings of Jesus. Paul summarized it well with the Fruit of the Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control. I believe it is important to have a sense of our God-given purpose, yet if what you claim does not affirm at least some of the Fruit of the Spirit, it might be time to go back to the drawing board and do some additional discernment. Some of you may still find yourself in the discovery process, and that’s absolutely fine. And our purpose can also change as we grow or maybe our context changes. Yet at the end of the day, like Albert Schweitzer, what we announce as our purpose should not be a surprise to anyone. How we live our lives and interact with others should make it rather clear to those who observe us.

Magnificent God, your Spirit is gentle and kind, always guiding our lives toward a greater commitment to the ideal seen in the life of Jesus. May we continue to explore his life, and in doing so, grow in our understanding of what our purpose is in this life. Amen.

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
April 17, 2026
Wednesday night, Donna and I saw Spamalot at the Hobby Center. We really enjoyed it, though we grew up in the days of Monty Python. As I was taking in the experience, especially what I can only describe as some of the more outlandish moments (and there were plenty), I had this strange thought: what would an alien race think of this performance, especially if it was one of the first things they observed of these newly documented creatures? I could be wrong, but I think they might post a sign near Jupiter that read: “Danger! Don’t get any closer. And avoid at all costs, especially that blue planet, third one from the sun.” There are so many things that are hard to understand unless you are an insider, some perspective that allows you to see things from the other side.

Now, please understand that I’m only making a loose, very loose comparison between Spamalot and following Jesus. But hang with me for a moment. Those who witnessed the first couple of generations of Jesus followers were often confused, even finding their actions ridiculous and reckless. Interestingly, there were fewer claims of absurdity when it came to the teachings of Christianity as compared to the actions of those who claimed to follow Jesus. For instance, Galen, the Emperor’s private physician in the second half of the second century, fled the city during what became known as the Antonine Plague (sometimes referred to as Galen’s Plague), as he had the resources to do. Some records seem to indicate that 2,000 people were dying each day in some of the bigger cities, and though historians and scientists are still unsure of what this plague might have been, it was passed because of close contact. Yet as people of means fled the cities, Galen made a note of the followers of Jesus moving against the crowds. They were entering the cities to care for the most vulnerable, often risking their lives. From the perspective of Galen and many others, these seemed strange, even ridiculous and reckless. They could not make sense of it, yet some Christian historians suggest that one of the greatest periods of growth in Christianity occurred over the next twenty years, and it was mostly among the poor and most vulnerable. They may not have initially understood the reason for such compassion and kindness, but they felt it. And it made all the difference. 

Of course, once you delve deeper into Jesus’s unwavering love and compassion, regardless of the cost, you begin to perceive a transformative way of life. And once you grasp it, you become captivated by it. Through this experience, you acquire the key—a sacred perspective—that enables you to comprehend the ridiculous and reckless nature as God’s way of doing things. It is the power of self-giving love manifesting in a body and meeting the moment.

I hear the stories of some of the most faithful people throughout history, and I am left scratching my head, Lord God. What they did was clearly an act of faith; ways of bringing alive the Gospel for the sake of others, yet my uneasiness with the far-reaching nature of their actions might simply be my nervousness in being asked to do the same. Give me strength, Holy God, to be bold in my daily actions, even when they cause others to scratch their heads. Amen.

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
April 16, 2026
Despite what many say, much of the Bible speaks rather clearly against monotheism. The 10 Commandments begin with the words, 

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:2-3).

It begins by being very clear who this God is, just in case someone was confusing this divine being with which Moses was conversing with the one our neighboring community worships. “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!” Suddenly, everyone knows who we are talking about. And from there, we hear the command which is to “have no other gods…” This implies multiple gods, though some will be quick to point out the words “Lord” and “God” are capitalized, and “gods” is not. That’s true in English, but in ancient Hebrew, there was no capitalization. English is trying to make a point that may not even be implied in the original language. 

Now let me be clear that I believe there is only one ultimate power in all the universe, and we have attached the word “God” to it, or at least those of us who speak English. But I also believe there are many other gods (I purposely use a lowercase) that we have created and empowered through the energy we give them. Churches have been guilty of making their buildings a god to which they revere beyond the point they should. It becomes a precious idol that must be protected at every cost. I am not suggesting that others things in our lives can’t have importance. It is good to be a steward of your home or car so that it holds up and not costing you more than it should. But at what point does something in our lives gain such importance and power over us that it becomes god-like? It’s a delicate balance, but awareness and prayerful discernment help us navigate it.

Today, I declare with scripture: For me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Help me to honor you, Amazing and Merciful God, with all the other stuff that seeks to hold sway over my life and priorities. Amen.

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
April 15, 2026
Just in case you hadn’t realized, today is tax day. If you’re reading this early enough, you might still have time to file your taxes… maybe. Early in life, after I started my first real job (I apologize for not paying taxes on my snow shoveling gigs between the ages of 10 and 12), filling out tax forms was incredibly stressful. Despite being the simplest form to complete, the questions seemed deliberately confusing. And I had a friend whose father had found himself in a tax mess, and though I knew nothing of the details, I was totally freaked out. I was quite certain that my $32 tax return would attract the attention of the tax police. Today, I am not opposed to paying taxes. In fact, I believe I receive value for my money. However, if I were the sole decision-maker, there are certain aspects that I would change. On the other hand, I acknowledge that there are individuals who deliberately evade the system. Furthermore, I recognize that the system is designed in a way that allows those with resources to creatively avoid taxes. Am I smart enough to figure out how to create a fairer and more just system? No! 

Of course, like a nation, the church requires financial resources. People often equate the church with a business, but I firmly believe that the church is not a business. However, I am quick to acknowledge that the church can benefit from applying good business principles for the purpose of being better stewards of the resources God entrusts to us. Cypress Creek Christian Church stands out as one of the most resilient churches I know when it comes to financial management. Don’t get me wrong; it has been a source of stress on numerous occasions, and I must admit that I have carried a significant portion of that stress at certain times. At the same time, God seems to make a way. Yet because God wants us to use an informed faith to guide decisions, one that most definitely uses wisdom and those good business principles, then I do not believe we can sit back and say, “God is going to take care of this.” I’m sharing this not because I’m currently stressed or because we are in a crisis, but to recognize how wisdom and those good business principles nudge us to remind people that we exist as an outpost of God’s mission because of people’s generosity; a generosity rooted in a God who first loved us. And like taxes, we do not complain about giving a portion of our income to the church, though I think of it very differently than I think of taxes. It is not about the services I get in return. Donna and I give because we fully believe in the unique mission and purpose God has entrusted to Cypress Creek Christian Church. And the value is in the lives touched because of the way God’s love was and is made real through the people of this congregation. 

In my gratitude for grace beyond measure, I offer what I can to the work of healing and transformation that you are doing in this world. I want to be a part of something bigger than myself, and I trust you to take my small gifts and do something miraculous with them, O God of Immeasurable Love. Amen.

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
April 14, 2026
In Sunday’s Sermon, I mentioned Rob Bell’s book, “Everything is Spiritual.” In the book, Rob gives a description of his first time giving a sermon. He wrote, 

“I had heard people give messages and teachings and sermons over the years. I usually didn’t find them that compelling. But this, this SPIRITUAL TALK THING I had stumbled into—this was part guerrilla theater and part performance art and part recovery meeting and part poetry and part subversive rhetoric. I was captivated.”

For Rob, preaching isn’t just one thing. There is complexity, or at least there should be. All you need to do is read scripture, and in one moment you’re reading beautiful poetry and in the next you’re being smacked upside the head by a prophetic message. And then on the next page, it is something wildly different. Some people have found it strange that I have preached as a pirate, offered a sermon as a Distrustworthy Car Salesman, did one in the form of a letter like we had received something directly from the Apostle Paul, and there was even one I did while throwing a pot on a potter’s wheel. Maybe these were strange, but so is the Bible… in a really wonderful and transformative way. To share the Gospel with our wonderfully diverse and wacky world with only one approach and one voice would be a disservice to this world. The standard was given to us in scripture, and now we only need to think with the same level of creativity.

Continue to inspire us as we contemplate the different ways and unique voices by which we can share your Gospel with the world, O Lord Jesus. Amen.

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
April 13, 2026
Prayer for the Week: 
Paul called us Fools for Christ 
   Fools in the ways of Christ 
   Fools because of Christ. 
Holy God, you call us to be foolish 
  not idiots 
  not to purposely make poor choices 
    but to stand in the world 
      while representing you 
        and the very counter-cultural 
          life of Jesus. 
    We look foolish 
      as servants of Christ
        entrusted with your holy mysteries. 
    It is hard work, 
      yet you understand. 
    The world pushes back - 
      Toxic religion
      Unhealthy institutions
      Powers and Principalities -
        they cannot thrive 
          where the love first life is lived. 
    The world pushes back 
      Calling us foolish
        unrealistic 
        not willing to play the game.
  With your help 
    we won’t play that game.
  With your help 
    we will strive to look foolish 
      as we put love first. 
Amen

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
April 12, 2026
Guest Writer: Rev. Becky Winders
God's Sense of Humor
When I contemplate God's sense of humor, my thoughts drift back to the quirks and giggles woven into my life growing up in a faith-filled household, I came to realize early on that divine intervention doesn’t speak in Charlton Hester’s or Morgan Freeman’s voice—it sometimes whispers through laughter, mishaps, and the unexpected moments that shape us.

Perils of not being Baptized:
As a child, I was consumed by the fear of not being baptized. Sunday school lessons painted vivid pictures of heaven and hell, and I became convinced that my lack of baptism was a one-way ticket to an eternal sauna and I hate being hot. While my friends daydreamed during sermons, I was plotting how to secure my spot among the saved. I was sure I was on the naughty list. At 8 years old, I may have been a little confused about Santa and God.

My chance finally arrived one Sunday night. The next thing I was literally walking that long walk to save my soul from eternal damnation.  My mother, the church organist, had no idea that I was going to take that walk. But as I began my walk — the music abruptly ceased. All eyes turned to my mother, who looked very startled. Years later, whenever I hear Don McLean’s "American Pie," especially the iconic line, “the day the music died,” I am reminded of that walk to confess my sins. 

The baptism itself was no less memorable. As the minister held me up because I was tiny and would have been under the water, his grip slipped and I took a real dunking to the bottom of the font. A collective gasp swept the congregation. The minister recovered and pulled me up, but my gasping and stunned expression became legendary. Instead of feeling embarrassed, I decided that it took a real dunking to get rid of my sins. I sensed even as a child that God was sharing in the joke—a reminder that even the holiest of moments aren’t immune to laughter.

More recent moments of Humor:
One Christmas Eve, I went to the midnight service with a friend, Mary David.  Mary is an obstetrician and was on call.  As we approached the moment of Christ’s birth, she got a message from her voice pager.  Throughout the church all heard “Mary please come to Labor and delivery.” It was the best timing ever. To this day that story is retold every Christmas Eve.

God often must remind me not to be so caught up in myself.  My very first experience as the Worship Leader, I was caught up in being perfect.  When I was saying the Words of Institution, I forgot to break the bread.  Instead of just letting it go, I announced to the entire church over the microphone “Oops I forgot to break the bread”! Then reached over and broke the bread…..I really wanted to suck those words back into my mouth.

I had the honor of saying the Communion prayer at the Maundy Thursday service this year.  I wrote a beautiful prayer about the real “Last Supper”.  It was eloquent filled with fancy words (so not me).  When I got up to say the prayer, I opened my binder and unfolded the paper. To my horror I was looking at the receipt for our retreat at Camp Gonzo.  So, I prayed from my heart and decided that God had put me in my place to just be myself. God had “smacked me upside the head”.  

Finally, the funniest moment, at a time that I was being petty and very human.  I had just set up communion. Another church member walked and did not know I was sitting in the empty church. She rearranged the table and then said something about the table. It really hurt my tender feelings. I walked out of the sanctuary angry.  I went to Holy Grounds to get some coffee and said just under my breath, “God, please get me out of this mood, I don’t want to go into worship with these ugly feelings”.  At that moment (…wait for it…) my smart watch announced, “I’m sorry I am not able to help you at this time”.  I burst out laughing and forgot the hurt and anger.

Conclusion
Looking back, these moments shaped my perception of God’s humor. The anxieties, the halted music, the baptismal blunder, botched Communion—all taught me that faith isn’t about perfection, but about embracing the unpredictability of life with humility and laughter. God’s sense of humor nudges us, to see the irony in our seriousness, and to find joy amid our worries. Today, I cherish these mishaps as gifts. They remind me that embracing faith means accepting its missteps, and its laughter. In the grand design, God’s humor is a gentle teacher, helping us smile and accept our imperfection. . I am filled with joy that God loves me “Just as I am”. And if the music ever stops again, I know now to listen for the punchline.

I found this prayer and loved its earthiness and realness (gotta love that first line):

Prayer for Good Humor
by St. Thomas More
Grant me, O Lord, good digestion, and also something to digest.
Grant me a healthy body, and the necessary good humor to maintain it.
Grant me a simple soul that knows to treasure all that is good
and that doesn’t frighten easily at the sight of evil,
but rather finds the means to put things back in their place.
Give me a soul that knows not boredom, grumblings, sighs and laments,
nor excess of stress, because of that obstructing thing called “I.”
Grant me, O Lord, a sense of good humor.
Allow me the grace to be able to take a joke to discover in life a bit of joy,
and to be able to share it with others.

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
April 11, 2026
Tomorrow, we continue with our series entitled: Show Them The Exit. For a church that celebrates an open door and a true spirit of hospitality, it feels a little counterproductive to give a title to anything that suggests we are showing someone the door. All jokes aside, over my years of ministry, I have met too many people who have literally been shown the door by their previous churches. For a whole host of reasons, too numerous to list here, people have been asked to leave. In two cases, I know people who were escorted out of worship and told never to come back, and it wasn’t because they were doing anything disruptive in worship. Cypress Creek Christian Church has become the home for many people who have been kicked out of previous churches, and for that, I am thankful. 

Our theme that began last Sunday with Easter is really about helping people who find themselves, for one reason or another, stuck in a tomb… a figurative tomb, though figurative does not make it any less real, frightening, or hopeless. And for many people, help showing them the way out might require them to find their way into worship or some other experience of the church. In fact, there are times when it might take a whole segment of the faith community to help someone get unstuck from the tomb and find liberation beyond the entrance/exit (depending on where you are). 

As the Apostle Paul suggests, baptism is a dying and rising with Christ. It is both an experience in the tomb and joyous liberation from the tomb, but baptism is not something we do to ourselves. Oh, sure, I got into the argument with a guy who put forth the scenario of an individual being stuck on a deserted island, and if that person wanted to be baptized, then that person could self-baptize. OK, for all those caught on deserted islands who might be reading this Etching, I provide full permission to do self-baptism, but for the rest of us, it is a passive experience. And though a minister might actually do the baptism, that officiant is only acting on behalf of God—a God who seeks to lift everyone from the tomb and into new life. It is a symbol of what people of faith will hopefully experience again and again and again. And for those who are needing a little help, the church—also called the Body of Christ—can point people in the direction of the exit, which is in fact an entrance into new life. 

Thank you, O Holy Giver of new life and tomb-exiting power. There aer so many tombs that might seek to hold us, attempting to drain us of hope and joy, we pray for the resurrection of Jesus to be our inspiration and our source of conviction. No tomb is our destination. This is our faith; this is our belief. Amen.

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
April 10, 2026
The other night, Donna and I caught the movie Nuremberg, starring Russell Crowe and Rami Malek. It was a look at the Nuremberg Trial and much of what went into preparing for the trial.  Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring (Crowe), the second in command of Nazi Germany, was being brought to trial, but the United States wanted an Army Psychiatrist, Douglas Kelley (Malek), to watch over Göring and other prisoners. Toward the end, Kelley and Göring are having a conversation, and Göring says, “Years from now, I wonder what you will say about us. Will you even acknowledge we were human?” There is this tendency to strip the humanity from those who have committed what can only be described as evil in this world, often demonizing them or comparing such individuals to the devil. For most of us, it is nearly impossible to imagine what would bring people to commit such atrocities, and for that reason, we reach for an otherworldly explanation. Yet what the movie tried to do, at least my take, was to continue to keep before the audience how a group of human beings were behind everything in Nazi Germany, and equally important, we are, as a species, always capable of such brutality and suffering. Those who disregard what human beings are capable of doing will inevitably face another Nazi-like movement. This movement will exploit fear, scapegoating some marginalized part of society, as its tactic to gain power. As followers of Jesus, and as concerned human beings, we must remain vigilant in our awareness of those who seek to manipulate fear and exploit insecurities to seize power. When such actions go unchecked, one group is inevitably crushed in the process.

Holy God, O Living Christ, there have always been those who lose sight of what is good, just, and righteous in their pursuit of something other than your vision for creation. Give me the wisdom and insight to be able to name my own weaknesses and fears that can so easily be manipulated. Provide me strength by which I can be bold and speak truth to those who seek power at any cost. Amen.

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
April 9, 2026
Many people are eager to pack up Easter the day after, much like Christmas. While I understand the desire to anticipate May Day, for those who know what it is, the Christian Calendar includes an entire Season of Eastertide. We transition from Eastertide on Pentecost Sunday, which falls on May 21st this year. Throughout this current season, there are numerous stories, both from the scriptures and within tradition, that recount encounters people had with the resurrected Jesus. One of the best known comes from Luke 24:13-16, where the resurrected Jesus encountered two people along the road to the village called Emmaus. The two men did not recognize Jesus, yet he opened the scriptures to them. In the end, the two men extended an invitation to Jesus to join them in a gesture of hospitality. As the stranger broke the bread, the eyes of the two men were opened, and they recognized the stranger as Jesus. My hope for each of us is that this season will offer us more than just a fleeting moment of joy and celebration. Wouldn’t a genuine and transformative encounter with the Living Christ be more beneficial to our faith and, consequently, to the world we inhabit?

Make yourself known, Lord Jesus! Open my heart to your presence this day, a presence that embraces me with love and calls me to live that love in the world. Amen.