ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
EASTER SUNDAY
March 31, 2024
Good Morning! It is Easter!! For forty days, we have been on a Lenten Journey that culminates today. And though our Lenten Theme of Pressing the Reset Button has come to a conclusion, I pray that you took seriously the notion of the reset in your own life and maybe even found a couple of specific places to start. One of the areas where I have been attempting to hit the reset is with regard to my attitude toward church, specifically the decline of church attendance and even religious interest. The statistics are a bit daunting and could easily leave someone overwhelmed and feeling powerless. Well, first, Cypress Creek is bucking that trend, in part because of a more open and thoughtful approach to scripture, along with a more Jesus-like expression of inclusive love. But the reset in my own life, which is hitting home this morning on Easter, is connected to the conviction that we have what I believe to be Good News to share. At the end of the day, Jesus did not call us to be successful using society’s measurements of success. He called us to be faithful, even when that faithfulness has numerous critics and detractors. Today is a new day, and despite all the news that could carry me into a tomb of despondency, I am choosing to claim resurrection and the amazing God-possibilities that come with such conviction. It is Easter! Let’s see if we can put a little Easter attitude into everything we are doing in the life of the church.

What a day! What a glorious day! It is made glorious because of what you have done, Lord God. What was written off and sealed behind a stone has been liberated by the power of love. Today, I claim that idea is more than some past event. It is happening today because your Spirit continues to move stones and bring life where the world has only seen hopelessness and death. Amen.

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
March 30, 2024
On what is often called Dark Saturday, I am looking a little further into Matthew’s telling of Holy Week, specifically after the arrest and torture of Jesus. In Matthew 26:71-72, we read of what is often called Peter’s Denial: “When Peter had gone out to the gate, another servant girl saw him and said to some people there, ‘This man was with Jesus from Nazareth.’ Again, Peter denied it, and this time he swore, ‘I don't even know that man!’”

By the time Saturday rolled around and Jesus was dead and buried, I wonder what Peter was thinking about in regard to his blatant denial of Jesus, bending over backwards to refute any connection to the Nazarene. Was he feeling an overwhelming sense of guilt? Was there anger toward Jesus for putting him in that predicament? Was he finding ways of justifying his actions? At the end of chapter 26, it says that Peter cried bitterly, so I sense some remorse in that moment, but the grief Peter must have experienced had to have played itself out in some pretty strange ways. 

I do not believe Peter is alone in this experience, and though our moments of denial may not be as dramatic or written into scripture, we need to acknowledge how the denial of our core convictions plays itself out. Do we play a blame-game? Do we make excuses? Or is there space for honesty, remorse, and repentance that can lead us to something new? On this Dark Saturday, I believe those are some important questions to ask ourselves.

Whether today resembles faithfulness or failure or something in between, I pray for the capacity to reflect on my actions through the lens of your grace, O God. If tomorrow is to be a better, more faithful day, I cannot ignore what I have done today. Amen.

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
March 29, 2024
As we take another step in this Holy Week experience, I am drawn to the words immediately before the arrest of Jesus, as he was praying in the garden, and you can feel his anguish. There we read, “Again Jesus went to pray and said, ‘My Father, if there is no other way, and I must suffer, I will still do what you want’" (Matthew 26:42). I am struck by the words chosen here, as Jesus desperately searched for another way but then conceded to do what God wanted him to do. In the never-ending debates over the concept of the Trinity, it sure doesn’t feel as if God the Father and Jesus are fully aligned in this moment. I find the reaction of Jesus and his hesitant capitulation to be helpful in my own understanding of these disturbing and uncomfortable days in the Jesus story. There is an unexpected power found in weakness, in the acknowledgement of one’s fear and frailty. And though I do not believe God sent Jesus to die, I believe the calling of the Spirit described in Luke 4 (…appointed to bring Good News…) offers us a picture of someone who was going to be pushing the buttons of the power structures in such a way that death might have been sort of inevitable. Whatever the case, I hear a Jesus who is neither excited nor fully committed to the idea of continuing down the path of arrest and death, yet he chose to remain faithful to the pathway of love and justice. 

There are days when my faith is a mess, yet I trust that your love remains faithful in spite of my fearfulness at the first sign of potential discomfort. Thank you, God, for a love that leads me forward, even when that forward movement includes a lot of hesitant stumbling. Amen.

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
March 28, 2024
As we move further into the Holy Week story as told in Matthew’s Gospel, we learn of an unnamed woman who entered the home of Simon the Leper (how would you like to have what sounds like a last name be an illness that you have? I’d be Bruce the Multiple Sclerosis) and opened a jar containing very expensive perfume. She poured it on Jesus’ head as he was reclining at the dinner table. The disciples got all mad, suggesting the perfume could have been sold and the money given to the poor. But Jesus pushed back and suggested the woman had done a great thing in preparing his body for burial. This story spurs my curiosity in regard to the unnamed and even unspoken characters in the stories of Jesus. There are so many things that occurred during this time, and I believe we can comfortably assume there were others involved. Along with the strong reaction by the disciples, were there people, maybe members of Simon’s family, who had helped to prepare and serve the meal? What were their reactions? What did they observe that maybe the disciples, being so close to the situation, were unable to see? It makes me think of the unnamed or unknown people who have crossed our paths and who have blessed us without us knowing who they were or what they did. 

Generous God, the grace and generosity of so many in life are often under-appreciated. So often, I do not pause long enough to acknowledge or give thanks for the numerous people who have been a part of my journey, in both small and significant ways. Amen.

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
March 27, 2024
There are many passages of scripture that leave me scratching my head, and the words from the opening of Matthew 23 are one example. It reads,

[Jesus said,] “The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law are experts in the Law of Moses. So obey everything they teach you, but don't do as they do. After all, they say one thing and do something else.”

Christians often suggest the teachings of the Pharisees were what Jesus came to confront. In fact, I just heard a minister say, “The message of the Pharisees was the antithesis of what Jesus taught,” but is that necessarily true, at least according to this passage? At the heart of Pharisaic thought was the importance of holding onto certain practices of the faith that kept one connected to the primary teachings, specifically in the context of Rome’s occupation of what we would call the Holy Land. It wasn’t always easy to maintain your faith, especially as the Greco-Roman culture continued to be more and more influential. Certain practices and rituals helped to reinforce the stories of the faith. For Jesus, it sure appears as if his greater concern was hypocrisy—not always matching what one did with what one claimed to be important. Jesus may not have always agreed with the Pharisees and other religious leaders, but in these words, he presents for us a different lens through which we can make some determination about a person’s convictions. The old saying, “I’d rather see a sermon than hear a sermon,” sort of resonates with this teaching. Most of us express our deepest-held convictions in what we do, not necessarily what we say.

I know I will never be perfect, O Gracious God, but I pray for the capacity to discern my own life witness and what it is that I am communicating to the world. If it is your limitless love that I preach, I hope my life gives just a glimpse of such beauty and power. Amen.

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
March 26, 2024
In Matthew’s Gospel, a short time after Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, there are a number of teaching moments. Many of them come from conversations and conflict, including a debate over resurrection (Matthew 22). Of course, it came in a roundabout way, as some of the religious were trying to stir an argument with Jesus. I find it interesting that Jesus, though offering some broad thoughts on the resurrection, really doesn’t take the opportunity for a grand treatise on the subject. You would think that just days before his death, he might offer a bit more detail. But what follows is quite interesting, as Jesus then turns to the Great Commandment, that we are to love God and love our neighbor. Jesus describes it as the greatest commandment, in a sense, overshadowing his teaching on the resurrection. It is interesting to me how some folks want a heated debate on what we can’t fully know while avoiding deeper conversations on what we can know and should be doing. It’s as if they were wanting to fight over the finer points of the afterlife and ignore the most basic expectations that Jesus put before his followers.

Though it can be engaging and enlightening to ponder the vastness of heaven, I pray for your help, Lord God, in putting most of my energy toward the single most important purpose you put before me—to love. Amen.

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
March 25, 2024
Prayer for the Week:
Holy Week
A journey from 
  incomplete joy to the fullness of joy
A journey that ended 
  for many when the parade concluded 
A journey seeking to bind together
  the fullness of the human experience 
A journey immersed in pain 
   betrayal, taunting, false allegations
A journey to the instrument 
   of Rome’s torturous insanity
A journey with words 
  of unimaginable mercy and kindness 
A journey to death, darkness, lostness, 
  an apparent victory of hopelessness 
A journey where even God 
  appeared to have turned away
A journey that is set before us…
A journey that should not be ignored…
Holy God, journey with us 
  this is our request
Amen

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
March 24, 2024
In today’s sermon, an idea I originally planned to use but time constraints required that it be left on the floor of my editing room had to do with Roman Citizenship. If someone was not a citizen of Rome, there were ways of gaining citizenship, but it was something that had to be earned. Keeping that in mind, as the Apostle Paul (a Roman citizen himself) talked about our citizenship in heaven or how we have had a change in our status before God and been brought into the Kingdom of God, And, of course, Paul also talks about adoption into the family of God. All these metaphors for our relationship to God and our place in God’s holy welcome have nothing to do with us earning it. We are in a relationship with God simply because God is love, and the very nature of that essential essence does not know how to exclude. It only seeks to embrace, heal, make whole, and create a life-giving relationship.

You are who you are, O Generous One, and we continue to strive toward a life that embraces, enjoys, and lives forth from the premise that we are loved and members of your holy realm of grace. Amen.

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
March 23, 2024
Today is Palm Sunday Eve, an important day in the life of the church. Not really, but I like to think of it in those terms. In Matthew’s telling of the story, Jesus sends two disciples into Jerusalem to find a donkey and a colt that he will ride. At the time of this request, it says that they were in Bethphage, about a two-hour walk from Jerusalem. Because of the round trip, I am going to guess that Jesus sent them on Palm Sunday Eve, the day before the Palm Parade. I can’t prove that; it's just a guess. But of course, Matthew tells us that Jesus requested not just a donkey but also a colt. Why both? And when it comes time for the parade, it sounds as if Jesus rides both of them. I just picture the circus act where the person is standing with one foot on one horse and the other foot on the second horse. This is a case where the author of the Gospel probably did not understand Hebrew Poetry which sometimes has two lines that say basically the same thing but with a slight change. It is not suggesting two different ideas, but a way of poetically placing emphasis on the one idea. From the Prophet Zechariah, we read:

Lo, your king comes to you;
  triumphant and victorious is he:
humble and riding on a donkey, 
  on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

The king is not riding on two animals. Instead, the poet is simply communicating an idea using a well-known poetic technique—parallelism. To be honest, I kind of like the image of Jesus riding two animals side by side. Whatever the case, it all started on Palm Sunday Eve, or at least that’s my story, and I’m sticking with it.

Whatever the day, however he might choose to enter. Keep me close to Jesus so that I might witness all he has to teach me. Amen.

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
March 22, 2024
On Sunday, which happens to be Palm Sunday, we will conclude the series on Pressing The Reset Button. As we continue to push the metaphor of the reset, we will focus on the necessity of anyone seeking to live like Jesus needing a reset from one perspective to another. There is one world where the humble are crushed and the last are defined as losers, yet Jesus spoke of how those who humble themselves shall be lifted up and those who are last shall find themselves first. Those who claim to be Christian offer a lot of sanctimonious rhetoric to these ideas, but they remain very much citizens of a world that does not have time for those defined as weak, failures, worthless, and nobodies. Very rarely do we see the Jesus reversal embodied, let alone the defining value. This might be the single most difficult reset for us to make, simply because there are very few examples we can turn to and use as a model. In James 4, the question is asked: “What good is it if people say they have faith but do nothing to show it?” The faith spoken of in James is not some nebulous feel-good sentimentality, but a specific belief in a specific worldview. 

There are numerous resets that I probably need, Lord God, but a reset with how I see the world and how I choose to interact with the world needs to be a priority each day. By your grace, may it be so. Amen.