ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
January 21 2024 In Psalm 37:9, we read: “And now, O Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in you.” We talked a lot about hope during Advent, yet even with all the discussion, it remains a strange and often difficult concept to fully grasp. It is so much more than wishful thinking. President Obama said at a funeral years ago, “As we discuss these issues, let each of us do so with a good dose of humility. Rather than pointing fingers or assigning blame, let’s use this occasion to expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy, and to remind ourselves of all the ways that our hopes and dreams are bound together.” Some might describe those words as wishful thinking, but I believe there is a genuine possibility of their fulfillment. We must start with the notion that our hopes bind us together. Our deepest longings are probably not much different from those of our neighbor if we were capable of actually having a healthy conversation. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “We are all tied together in a single garment of destiny. I can never be what I ought to be until you are allowed to be what you ought to be.” With the guiding strength of God, let us seek to bring this basic hope to every human being—something more than wishful thinking. I hope in you, O God, though that hope asks a great deal of me. Call me as a partner so that together—you, me, and all who are seeking a better tomorrow—we can all realize your great dream. Amen.
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ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
January 20 2024 During a time of difficulty, the prophet Jeremiah announced the words of God as he had perceived them. “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope” (29:11). A friend of mine in college had a saying taped to his wall that I have since seen numerous times. It read, “I do not know what the future holds, but I do know who holds the future.” Though some might take those words to mean that God controls all things, I believe they signify how God is always calling and luring us into the future God wishes for us. Though it may take many lifetimes for God to bring the world only slightly closer to the divine hope, God is patient, always holding that vision of a future made whole by redemptive love. Continue to dangle your future hope before us, O God of Love, so we might reach for it, and by doing so, bring the world just a bit closer to the realization of that future. Amen. ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
January 19, 2024 A simple request—tomorrow, the Leadership Team at Cypress Creek (Elders and Board) will be meeting for the breaking of bread (with some soup), conversations, connection, dreaming, praying, and some other good stuff. Some might think the purpose of this gathering is to get the Leadership Team on the same page. That’s sort of true, but it’s really about getting on God’s page, which tends to be a bit more challenging. In Philippians 2, Paul writes, “…complete my joy by thinking the same way, having the same love, being united, and agreeing with each other” (vs.2). This sounds as if the hope is for everyone to agree, but if you go just a few verses later, you find Paul writing, “Adopt the attitude that was in Christ Jesus” (vs.5). Suddenly, it is not just about achieving consensus but also aligning ourselves with Jesus. That’s easy? Right? Actually, if we take a quick look around at Christianity in America, we will realize that there is very little consensus on who Jesus was, is, and what he called his disciples to do. I’m not naive enough to suggest that a gathering tomorrow morning and early afternoon is going to bring about a true alignment with Jesus, but we need to start somewhere. And really, that begins with being mindful of who we really believe Jesus to be, what his essential practices were, and how we shape our lives together so that we might reflect him. Again, I request your prayers. O Loving Lord, O Merciful Christ, you gently and persistently form us in the ways of Jesus, yet sometimes we push back. Sometimes, we are not always interested in changing. By faith, we claim your eternal patience, yet we should not abuse such a gift. Today and tomorrow are both excellent days to work on aligning our lives with the life of Jesus. Amen. ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
January 18, 2024 So I stopped by Whole Foods on Tuesday afternoon. The sun was out, and the temperature had just gone above freezing. It felt good. As I came out of the store carrying one of my blue Cypress Creek bags filled with groceries, I stepped out of the shade of the entrance overhang just at the right moment for a piece of ice attached to the building to break away. It wasn’t big, maybe 3 inches in diameter, but it hit in the perfect place (that’s sort of up for discussion). I was wearing a jacket, but it was unzipped. Underneath, I had a long-sleeve shirt with a loose collar. You can probably guess where this is going, or, in the case of the ice, where it was going. That’s right—it brushed the back of my head and went right down the back of my shirt. I’m pretty sure some folks thought I was having a full-blown Pentecostal experience—a one-person revival in the parking lot of Whole Foods. Years ago, Rev. John Humbert, who served as General Minister of our denomination, said in a sermon, “There are God moments that are so shocking that it reminds me of being a kid when someone threw a snowball at me and snow went inside my coat and shirt.” I can’t say my experience outside of Whole Foods was a religious experience, but I have known a few shocking moments in my life when the Spirit awakened me, made me uncomfortable, followed by some laughter, and then I moved on with life knowing that I was going to carry the residue of the experience with me for quite some time. Awaken me, O God, to whatever will strengthen my faith. Awaken me, even when it might be a shock to my system. Amen. ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
January 17, 2024 If a church is an idea (what was discussed on Sunday and in yesterday’s Etching), and we believe it is an idea inspired by God, then don’t you imagine that God is already at work in bringing together the necessary components to see this idea grow into into greater expression? If we say the church is an idea that has found a body, it begins to remove individual personalities and those personalities’ individual like and dislikes. I am not suggesting we lose sight of the beautiful and unique expression that is each person, but when those individuals bring their unique gifts to the common task (passion, purpose, mission, vision, idea), it is about what we are doing together for the sake of all those individuals who have come to believe that they are undeserving of love, that they are not worthy of mercy, or that God does not care about them. Often, they did not come to that conclusion alone. There were people or groups that reinforced it, leaving many people painfully lost. If the church, which is the very entity God has called forth to embody an idea, is consumed with individual likes and dislikes, it will never be the cohesive and singular body of Jesus Christ in the world. As the Apostle Paul says in 1st Corinthians 12, “ Christ is just like the human body—a body is a unit and has many parts; and all the parts of the body are one body, even though there are many. We were all baptized by one Spirit into one body, whether Jew or Greek, or slave or free, and we all were given one Spirit to drink (vs.12-13). May the idea of your love, O Lord, a love that first loved us, continue to be the spiritual energy that binds us together for the work of love in the world. Amen. ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
January 16, 2024 In my sermon on Sunday, I suggested that Cypress Creek Christian Church is an idea whose time has come (borrowing language from Victor Hugo). Now some might think it a bit arrogant to claim that a church and its mission are a match for the moment, but I find it almost humorous how a lot of the big box churches are modifying their language to give the appearance of something that sort of sounds like unconditional and relentless love, but at the end of the day, in a lot of settings, their unspoken commitment is to power rooted in a claim that the Bible is inerrant (without error in its words or teachings). It is impossible to truly unleash the power and boundless nature of God’s love unless it is removed from this late 19th-century concept of inerrancy. If your main purpose is to protect an idea that has no real scriptural basis and totally dismisses the beautiful journey that brought what we know as the Bible to us, then you will need to find ways of creating a system that protects at any cost. Fear and guilt are just some of the tools used while still using a lot of sanctimonious language around words like love and mercy. In the end, a very narrow understanding of a book is lifted above the grace-filled actions of Jesus and those who would follow him. Jesus, as I meet him in the Gospels, is the starting place for my faith, but within the four Gospels, there are some pretty dramatic differences. Some of them can be understood by appreciating the unique context and backdrop in which the Gospel was written. Other times, it is pretty clear that one Gospel writer had a very different purpose in writing than another Gospel writer. In taking those seriously, new insight and inspiration can be drawn for how one might live a bit more like Jesus in this moment of time. I’m not suggesting that we'll come to a place where there will be no more disagreements. There will be plenty of lively debate, but if the purpose is truly to gain a greater understanding of God’s love so we can better share that love, then most disagreements will be secondary to the good work being done. What beautiful love you have shared, O God, and I only pray for an openness to both the Jesus of scripture and the gift of the Holy Spirit as I continue to grow in my understanding of a concept like unconditional as it relates to your love. And even more challenging is taking what I learn and applying it to my daily life. Yet I believe in the human capacity to grow and to follow in the ways of Jesus even more closely tomorrow than today. Amen. ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
January 15, 2024 Prayer for the Week: Lord of Life and Liberty, on this day in which we remember and pay tribute to the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we are mindful of the multitude of names we do not know, yet they too gave the last full measure of devotion to you and to the dream of human equality. Dr. King was a true and faithful servant in the pursuit of justice through nonviolent resistance, yet he was not alone in this self-sacrificing work. Like so often, the path of progress is stained with the blood of the martyrs. You know each of their names, and you have welcomed them into your Reign of Love that knows no end. May their steadfastness be honored, even if all we know is the legacy of their goodness. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen. ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
January 14, 2024 Have you ever felt like something occurred at the absolute right time? I’m pretty sure we can all name a time or two when something happened at the absolute worst time. In those good moments, we often say things like, “It’s like the stars aligned” or “God was guiding every step.” There are a lot of theological questions that come to mind in those moments, as there have been times when I thought all was good, but it ended up not so good. And other times, when it appeared to be the worst of situations, in the end, it turned out really well for someone else. It’s complicated, and often we are only looking at things through a very narrow and limited lens. With that said, I am going to be looking at a couple of passages this morning in worship; one of them is from Galatians 4:4, where we read: “But when the time was right, God sent his Son…” The Greek word translated here as “right” is pléróma, which ‘right’ is probably the least helpful translation. Fullness is a better translation, but what fascinates me is that we find that word in Mark 2:21, where we read: No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. The word pléróma is translated here as “patch.” The time described in Galatians 4:4 is a time that is about bridging, about bringing together, or mending. It comes from the Greek word pletho, which is where we get our English word plethora—an abundance. When God took on flesh in Jesus, it was a moment in time when there was such an abundance that every division and every separation was made one. You can see how, in my opinion, simply translating as “right time” sort of falls short. Thank you, Gracious God, for those amazing moments that are truly filled to overflowing with your love, mercy, and kindness. In such moments, even when the world cannot fathom how anything can change, you provide more than enough of what will make a moment the right moment for transformation. Amen. ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
January 13, 2024 What does it mean to honor a legacy like that of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? He was not a perfect man, yet he sought to embody the perfect love of God. I cannot fathom the hateful rhetoric, threats against family, and physical violence that he endured. I would hope that I’d stay true to my convictions, but I cannot guarantee it. King, along with so many others, not only had an unshakeable image of the divine dream in his head, but he believed in the ideals of that dream as the mechanism by which the dream would be fulfilled. Though very creative, Dr. King did not create this approach. It found its inspiration in Jesus and how the Jesus life pointed to a Kin(g)dom of love. And the only way to that Kin(g)dom was through love. There is a story in Matthew’s Gospel where Jesus is asked about paying taxes, and Jesus asked about whose image was on the coin used to pay the tax. It was Caesar’s image, and Jesus said, “Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what belongs to God.” Jesus seemed to be pointing to the image of God that rests upon every human being, but I believe it goes one step further. If we are giving to God what belongs to God, then we are giving to God how we live our lives, the choices we make, and even how we value things like our enemies. The emphasis is not simply that we carry the image of God, though true according to our faith. I believe Jesus was suggesting that our way of living should belong to God. This is another case where I hope my life can remain true to those convictions. For all the amazing models I have, but especially for Jesus, I am thankful, O Merciful God. May I continue to strive toward the goal of having every aspect of my life belong to you. Amen. ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
January 12, 2024 Today is the 14th anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti that killed as many as 300,000. I was rereading some statistical information about the event and the days following, and it suddenly hit me that statistics are really the only way I can even begin to fathom that kind of horror and suffering. I don’t know exactly where the line is, and it probably depends on both the person and the situation, but statistics help us to speak the truth without really experiencing the truth. It is a buffer of sorts by which we can shake our heads and say, “Oh my! 300,000 dead. It is hard to imagine.” Sometimes we need to view an event from 30,000 feet in an attempt to understand the extent and gravity of what has occurred. At the same time, the human heart cannot remain at 30,000 feet, and we suddenly find ourselves reading a story about a young child whose parents were killed in the earthquake or another situation where the parents returned home to find that everything had collapsed, and for a few hours, they could hear their children crying under the rubble. In those moments, it’s not that we forget about the immensity of loss. Instead, we find ourselves focusing on the lives of individuals. It’s there that true compassion takes hold, and though it is hard to fathom 300,000 deaths, we can ache and pray for that child or that family. It’s a touchpoint for what would otherwise be described only in terms of a quantitative number to be analyzed. As I think about my faith, I believe I’m called to move between those two—to see the larger picture that should never be lost upon us, while also understanding some of the specifics that are often hidden in statistical information. Your love, O Lord, is concerned about the world, but I do not believe you are only concerned about an overarching perspective of a vague concept. The vision I see in Jesus is of a love that knows the concerns of every person and is seeking to respond to those individual concerns with care that is relevant to the uniqueness of every person and every situation. I believe you are that God, and so I say, thank you! Amen. |
AuthorRev. Bruce Frogge Archives
May 2024
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