05-31-23

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
May 31, 2023
What makes a child good or bad? You often hear someone say to a child, "Now be a good little boy (girl/child)." What is meant by that? I’m sure a few of you reading this were absolute angels when you were younger, but the rest of us were probably a mix of good and bad and a whole host of other things. But this raises the question of who is in charge of determining what is good and what is bad. Things that were once defined as bad have been revisited as we’ve learned that certain behaviors once deemed bad are actually pretty normal as a child explores what it means to be a human being. Or what was once ignored as just boys being boys is now understood as bullying, unhealthy, or just downright mean. And I’ve got to think that context sometimes plays a role in determining whether a behavior or set of actions should be encouraged or discouraged. Before becoming a parent, I was pretty sure such determinations were going to be easy, right and wrong, black and white, good and bad. I had worked with children and youth for fifteen years before becoming a dad, but in the daily grind of raising a kid, some of what I assumed to be good wasn’t as good as I thought, and some of what I judged as bad wasn’t as bad as I thought it was. And then some of it got turned completely upside down. This is all to say that on Sunday, I am preaching a sermon entitled: It’s Complicated! And though some of you might have this whole faith and life thing figured out, I hope this sermon might speak to the rest of you.

​O Kind and Generous God, for those of us who continue to find life more complicated than we originally imagined, we pause and turn to you, even though you are in many ways an undefinable holy mystery. Yet, maybe there is something sacred in exploring the conundrum that Jesus attempted to explain with parables, acts of generosity, hyperbole, and a love that was willing to die. Guide me! Beckon me! This is my prayer. Amen.