ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
August 31, 2024
You’ve probably heard it just as many times as I have. “The church is a business.” Those who know me might remember my answer. “No! The church is not a business. The church is the church, the body called forth by Jesus and empowered through the Holy Spirit to share the Gospel of love. With the said, the church can gain important insight from the business world, both what might be helpful and what is not helpful.” Yes, we have a structure like a business, and we have to follow state and federal laws like a business. We also have a budget, but we are not in the ‘business’ of making a profit. We have to work at that strange crossroads of faith, common sense, purposeful practices, and what it means to follow a God who invites us to live a life of self-giving love. Traditional measurements of success do not work, yet as a church, we still have to pay our electric bill, as I am pretty sure we won’t hit any marker of success in regard to worship attendance if we do not have AC in the sanctuary during the summer. Toward the end of 2 Corinthians 8, the Apostle Paul says, “Show them what you’re made of” (the Message). This is our witness—to make real the conviction that we carry the image of the One who is love for the purpose of sharing love. As I read the Book of Acts, I do not believe God thought that witness needed a business model. Instead, it needed a body—the Body of Christ, known as the church.

For whatever the task, Merciful God, I pray for your love poured into me to be the gift that is revealed through me. May it be so! Amen.

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
August 30, 2024
Recently, I saw someone post on social media the following:

Christianity isn’t just a set of beliefs, a list of dos and don’ts, and a group of rituals. Christianity is a relationship with God in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.

At first glance, I do not find anything wrong with that statement about Christianity, but then as I read it a second and third time, I find myself being a bit cautious. Again, I don’t disagree, but how helpful is the statement to someone who has little or no background in Christianity? These kinds of statements tend to be made with great exuberance, yet to that individual who has never walked inside a church, what is the value of having a relationship with an invisible divine entity who is connected to an ancient guy through a so-called sacred apparition? I don’t see anything that might be exciting or enticing. If I were to rewrite it, I would make a couple of modifications. In today’s world, Christianity shouldn’t present itself in terms of beliefs or even qualified relationships. It begins with belonging. So I would even drop the word “just” at the beginning and say:

Christianity is not a set of beliefs, a list of dos and don’ts, or even a group of rituals. Instead, Christianity begins with belonging.

Jesus never started with beliefs or even with an expectation of rule following. He started with an open door, a place at the table, and love. 

Holy God, we need your help. We too often get stuck in the finer points of our belief systems, while losing sight of Jesus and how he led with love for the sake of making sure people knew just how loved they were. We need your help, God, if we are going to be like Jesus. Amen.

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
August 29, 2024
Tuesday night, I attended an interfaith event at the Baitus Samee Mosque on Spears Road. They experienced hateful vandalism a couple of weeks back, and Tuesday’s gathering was an opportunity to demonstrate support and engage in dialogue. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community has as its mission statement: “Love for all, hatred for none.” Sadly, not everyone agrees, even within the Islamic community. Like Christianity, there can be plenty of internal disagreements; some of those have brought about violence and death in Algeria, Pakistan, and Malaysia. What caught my attention before the event got started was a little girl who was running around the mosque laughing and occasionally stopping in front of different people with a big grin and a giggle. I was there 20 minutes early, and her grandfather was sitting a few chairs down from me. On a number of occasions, she ran to her grandfather and gave him a big hug. He then kissed her on the top of her head and absolutely beamed with joy. Once he turned to me and said, “Lots of energy, but I love her so much.” In a world so easily divided along more lines than one could even count, it would be nice for more people to sit down next to each other and see the interaction between a grandfather and a granddaughter. His religion and ethnicity were different than mine, and though I am not a grandfather, I felt the love he had for her. The love we feel for our family members provides at least one good connecting point amidst the many differences that have sadly become places of distrust and hate. Of course, it all begins with a willingness to actually sit down in the same place and listen to one another.

Wherever an opportunity for learning and growth occurs, O God who crossed every divide, I pray for both curiosity and courage in taking a step toward understanding, friendship, healing, and peace. Amen.

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
August 28, 2024
In Luke 7, we have a story of compassion. We read:

As Jesus approached the city gate, a dead man was being carried out. He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow. A large crowd from the city was with her. When he saw her, the Lord had compassion for her and said, “Don’t cry.” He stepped forward and touched the stretcher on which the dead man was being carried. Those carrying him stood still. Jesus said, “Young man, I say to you, get up.” The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.

The Greek word in the original text that we translate as compassion is: splagchnizomai. I love that word! It is a great word just to pronounce, but like a lot of words, it has an intriguing literal meaning. The key word is bowels or entrails. Some scholars say it is a yearning or twisting of the bowels. If my bowels are yearning or twisting, I’m not too sure if compassion is what is about to be produced (sorry, I couldn’t help it). Though with that said, it is an ache or gnawing on the gut that cannot be ignored. It is so much more than saying, “I feel bad for that situation” or “That’s really horrible, and I’m glad I am not involved.” Splagchnizomai might even be more than gnawing, a sort of tugging to act. When have you felt bad for someone or a situation but didn’t feel it necessary to act? And when have you been unable to ignore the tug?

Continue to tug at my soul or on my entrails, O Lord. Whatever will work! There is so much need, and you have gifted me in a unique way to serve the world around me. Tug away! Amen.

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
August 27, 2024
Recently, I had someone who came by the church during the week and asked for a tour. As we walked around, the question was asked, “Who pays for all this?” It would have been nice to say that we are financed by a money tree planted in a hidden corner of the property. Or maybe all the money trickles down from our denominational headquarters. Of course, neither one of those is correct. The person on the tour was a bit surprised when I explained that the buildings were built and have been maintained mostly by the generosity of those who are committed to the vision and mission of Cypress Creek Christian Church. Over the years, we have received gifts from those outside the church, a handful of grants, and some kind community gifts during our rebuild after Hurricane Harvey. Of course, the building of the buildings is one thing, while maintaining those buildings is a whole different thing. And that includes monthly utilities, insurance, repairs, and, of course, staffing. With everything Cypress Creek Christian Church has experienced in the last decade, it is quite extraordinary for us to be where we are. I’m not suggesting that we are rolling in the money, but we continue to find a way. As we look to 2025, I do have some concerns, especially in regard to property and liability insurance. Churches have become some of the hardest-hit entities in the last three years, and though we are searching for cheaper insurance, I would estimate that more than 15% of our budget will go toward our insurance policies. It is not one of the items in the church budget that you can get people excited about, though after Hurricane Harvey, I was thankful for our Flood Insurance. It sort of saved the day. In the Book of Hebrews, we are told, “Do not neglect to do good, and to share what you have, for such sacrifice is pleasing to God” (Hebrews 16). I think about all the sacrifices that were offered for the purpose of working toward the fulfillment of our vision and mission, and today I want to give thanks for all those past and present whose faithfulness to God has been pleasing to God.

For all who continue to do good through the sharing of their gifts, often sacrificially, we offer our praise and thanks to you, Amazing God, for you are the inspiration for such generosity. Amen.

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
August 26, 2024
Prayer for the Week:
Stop it! That’s no good! 
What a waste of time! 
What a worthless use of your energy!
O Inventive and Imaginative Spirit, when negative voices seem to squelch the creative energy of one’s soul, we pray for your Holy Voice to speak an affirmation of what is possible. When the fear and insecurity of some seek to limit the potential in others, provide an influx of audacious energy through which perceived perimeters give way to unexplored pathways. Amen.

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
August 25, 2024
I am writing this as I make my return trip to Houston from Chautauqua, NY. It was an amazing week, though describing the experience is challenging. There is an X Factor that, in my opinion, can only be understood through a firsthand experience. There are a number of those kinds of things in life, and Chautauqua is one of them. There were seven of us from Cypress Creek Christian Church, and though there were many powerful moments, the preaching is what lifted my soul. The Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III is powerful in both his style of preaching and his thoughtful content. Throughout the worship services, there were numerous God moments. As a preacher, I find myself often critiquing sermons from a more academic standpoint. This past week, there was not a moment to put myself in the mindset to evaluate and judge the structure or flow of the sermon. Each sermon captured me, and before I knew it, I was fully involved in the message. God was there! In John 10:37, Jesus says to his disciples, “My sheep listen to my voice. I know them, and they follow me.” Each morning when Rev. Moss III began to speak, it was like hearing the voice of Jesus, and often that voice had a challenging word for me. 

Whatever or whoever it might be, Merciful God, I pray for you to speak a good and inspiring word to my heart and mind. I believe the Living Word of Jesus can be encountered in practically any moment of life, assuming my heart and mind have been made available. So maybe that is where I need to begin. Amen.

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
August 24, 2024
This summer at Chatauqua, there has been a world premiere play by Kate Hamill. In a panel discussion yesterday, she was talking about what they had learned from these performances. So much is learned from the audience response, and though she said that they have not changed any of the dialogue in the play, the experience of these world premiere performances has left the DNA of Chatauqua upon this play forever. You think of art as something presented, from a painting to a dance to a piece of music, and it is sort of assumed by us non-artist folk that it is what it is. But audiences are forever leaving their fingerprints on the art (their DNA), though hopefully not literally unless it is a very interactive expression. It’s made me wonder how the audience—the congregation in my case—has left their DNA on the sermon. And even when I preach it two times, one immediately after the others, how the give and take of the experience, people’s facial expressions, when they laugh and when they do not, impacts how the sermon enters the universe. Not to put myself in the same realm of Jesus, but I wonder how often he was telling a parable and made a slight adjustment when he noticed his audience watching the birds of the air or counting the hairs on the head of the person in front of them. Maybe I’m wrong, but I imagine it carried the DNA of his audience. Maybe there is something for all of us to learn.

As you loved the world, Lord Jesus, and taught us to love one another, we pray this day for the capacity to be abundantly aware of those around us, their experiences and reactions. There is so much to learn about how we are perceived, and it is our desire to be understood and to appreciate others. Amen.

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
August 23, 2024
The French author, Pierre Coneille, once wrote, “Real joy comes not from ease or riches or from the praise of others, but from doing something worthwhile.” In Acts 13:52, we find the disciples “filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.” Paul and Barnabas were struggling to remain faithful, while so many others wanted to see them fail (or see them dead). The joy they knew did not come from success, for they had seen as much failure as they had success. It did not come from applause and adoration, for there was little of that, especially from those who wanted to see them hushed. It came from a faithful sense of purpose, despite everything else happening around them. It came from knowing deep within themselves that they were participating in what God was calling them to do.

I want your joy, O Heavenly Father, not just worldly happiness. Amen.

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
August 22, 2024
How many of you read it in the email Etching that I was unable to correct or read it online before I had a chance to correct it? Yes, in yesterday’s Etching, I wrote “Right them off” instead of “Write them off.” And yes, I know the difference, but this is a reminder for me to not write my Etching while trying to do something else. Especially when there is lots of sound around me and I am trying to write inside my head, I find that I type what I hear in my head and not the meaning of what I am writing. That sounds strange to many of you, but I heard a psychologist who specialized in auditory processing give a name to what I have experienced a number of times. It was nice to know I was not alone. That’s all to say that my mistake has given me reason to pause, not to explain (though I attempted to do so), but to run with it. What might it mean to say, “Right them off”? In Psalm 3:8, we read:

Rescue comes from the Lord!
    May your blessing be on your people!

These words invite the reader’s attention to the central story within the Jewish Tradition: the story of the Exodus, the liberation from slavery. God was the agent of freedom, and God got them right before sending them forth with blessings. I am sort of liking the idea of us righting people off and getting them, with the help of God, in the best position for whatever is to come next in life before sending them forth.

Thanks for putting up with my sort of embarrassing mistake, and thanks for letting me play around with my mistake as it sort of prodded my imagination.

Thank you for your grace, Merciful God, amidst those errors that do happen… sometimes a little too often. But also, thanks for the space to allow for mistakes to not necessarily be a dead end but a doorway to something new. Amen.