ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHING
October 24, 2021
Donna and I went to the Renaissance Festival yesterday. It has been something the two of us have enjoyed doing from early in our marriage, though we didn’t go last year because of the pandemic. Yes, we do dress up and enjoy the goofiness of doing so. But both of us are people watchers, and there is a lot to see, a lot to take in. Yet what’s interesting in that setting is the lack of judgement. Some folks have over the top costumes, and others are wearing a couple of simple items they purchased off the internet. Some folks have kept to a theme/genre in every detail, and others are doing a blending of historic periods, fictional characters and something else I couldn’t figure out. Compliments about outfits, shoes, hairstyle, etc. are spoken often and with great care. In the end, there is community and a high level of acceptance. I have said before – the church might take some lessons from such events when it comes to making space for people as they show up. In Matthew 5, we find the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus challenged his audience about loving not only the neighbor, but loving the enemy. He added a little sarcasm when he asked how hard is it really to love those you already love? But the line I often miss is when he added, “…if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others?” He was pointing out that greeting (the word also means embrace) those with whom you feel comfortable isn’t risking anything. Thus suggesting how our current welcome and embrace might be a bit too restrictive.

Gracious God, no matter how I show up to any moment of life, you seem to find something to celebrate, something to lift up. May I show a similar amount of welcome and affirmation to all those I meet along the way, even those I do not fully understand. Amen.

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ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHING
October 23, 2021
How often do we have the opportunity to say, “I love you.” How often do we have the chance to reveal love to someone? How often does someone walk away from an interaction with us feeling loved? I went through a period of my life, a sort of spiritual practice, where I asked myself these questions every evening. At first, I felt guilty as there were missed opportunities that I could name. But in time, the guilt moved to motivation and there was more awareness during the day. At the end of 1st Corinthians 2, Paul spoke of his readers having the mind of Christ. He was not describing a brain transplant, but a transplant of awareness or attitude… taking on the likeness of the Christ-life. Jesus recognized needs and opportunities others missed, and equally important, he acted upon those. What are you doing to create more Christ-like awareness in your own life?

Holy Spirit, continue to grow within me a Christ-like attitude so Christ-like love is experienced by more and more people. Amen.

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ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHING
October 22, 2021
Does love exist apart from the entities that share and receive love? This was a strange thought I had as I was driving back to the church after a meeting yesterday. Some of you are probably thinking that Bruce must have been really bored. That’s probably true, but don’t we talk about love as a force, a power… as if it could stand alone? We speak of love being poured into someone, yet when water is poured into a glass, the water is something other than the pitcher or the glass. Of course, 1 John 4 suggests that God is love which implies no separation between love and God. In the end, I wonder if such questions are interesting for discussion purposes, but if we find ourselves too lost in the speculation, do we end up ignoring the real work of sharing love?

At the end of the day, I seek your assistance, Lord God, as I love friend, enemy and anyone else who has yet to receive a designation. Amen.

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ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHING
October 21, 2021
I have noticed a heaviness in my life that I can only name as grief. I am heart-sick about the 730,000 deaths from COVID. I mourn the millions of family members who continue to struggle because of these deaths, in part, because they were unable to say “Good-bye” in a way that was healthy. I lament the young children impacted by COVID, including the thousands who lost one or two parents to this virus. I also grieve what I can only describe as a shallowing of Christianity – a faith that emphasizes freedom apart from responsibility, a faith stressing personal happiness while ignoring the commands to love; to take up the cross; to sacrifice for the most vulnerable. In the 13th chapter of John’s Gospel, Jesus said to his disciples: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” The emphasis is on the words, “Just as I have loved you…” If we have any hope of others knowing we are disciples of Jesus, then we must emulate his love, not some anemic version of love that we have conjured up to make us feel good. This is where I am humbled by what I see around Cypress Creek Christian Church. So many people are asking hard questions about taking up the cross and what discipleship looks like in this unique moment. Those questions are necessary for anyone taking the teachings of Jesus seriously.

I need strength, O God, if I am to love as you loved. I will need to find spiritual prompting and nudging if I am going to live the life of love, the life by which others will know I am your disciple. Amen.

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ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHING
October 20, 2021
Those who have chosen to follow Jesus have only one task, and that is to love. The love of God put on display in Jesus, the love we are to use as our model, is not something we choose to emulate only when it is practical or easy. They say consistency is the best teaching tool, and Jesus was consistent when it came to love. What do we teach the world when we are inconsistent with the love we share? I’m not suggesting any of us will reach perfection when it comes to love, but consistent inconsistency reveals to the world something other than love; other than Jesus; other than the Gospel.

I have plenty of work to do, Merciful God, yet I do not wish to have my life reflect poorly on you. Through the encouragement of your Spirit and the perfect example of Jesus, I believe an unwavering love can grow within me. May it be so! Amen.

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ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHING
October 19, 2021
This past Sunday, I talked about how loving your neighbor not only begins with loving yourself, but knowing yourself. In fact, it is hard to love yourself if you do not know yourself. In Galatians 5:14, the Apostle Paul echoed the teaching of Jesus when he wrote, “For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” Paul was one who had an epiphany, not only about Jesus, but about himself. On the Road to Damascus, Paul encountered the Living Christ which changed his understanding of God and the expansive nature of love. But Paul also found himself as he discovered divinely given gifts that resided within him, gifts empowered by grace that were provided despite his less than stellar past. When you are hit upside the head with God’s unconditional love, especially in the face of your own failures (or in Paul’s case, the attacks he committed against the earliest followers of Jesus), there is a moment when you realize there must be something within you worthy of love. I think Paul must have thought to himself, “If God can love me, then I ought to be able to love myself.” FYI – God loves you that much, and so it is time to love yourself.

By your grace, O God, I learn of my value and belovedness. It is in that knowledge, that I come to know myself; to love myself; to find the freedom to love my neighbor. May it be so! Amen.

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ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHING
October 18, 2021
Prayer for the Week:
God of All Creation –
Source of all goodness
Giver of all Grace.
Today, we give thanks
For a sustaining love
For the breath of life
For the sustenance of the earth
For the welcome of your church.
Our hearts are filled with gratitude
For the beauty of creation
For the birds of the air
For the fish in the waters
For the animals upon the land.
We give you all praise and honor
We give you the words of our mouths
We give you the work of our hands.
Today, we give thanks
For all the good gifts of life –
O God of All Creation.
Amen.

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ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHING
October 17, 2021
Many different people have said it many different ways, but let me say it this way: Do not live vicariously the blessings of others while ignoring your own. Today in worship, we will talk about envy. To have envy is to lose all excitement for what we have as we grow in excitement for what is not yet our own. We can still be happy and excited for others when they achieve something. That’s not being envious. Yet too often we wander the world wearing glasses with green lenses and wonder why everyone else’s lawn is greener. Our vision is skewed, and upon closer look without optical interference, we might just find the grass is not any greener on the other side of the fence… and might even have a few more brown spots than our own.

Holy and Exalted God, where there is an abundance of blessings in life, provide me with a heart that perceives and celebrates. And where there are those who do not have even the most basic necessities of life and truly do live a life of scarcity, may the places of abundance in my own life provide a gift of sustaining hope. Amen.

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See you in worship today

Contemporary – 10:15am
Traditional – 10:25am
-or-
Watch online
https://www.cypresscreek.cc/live-stream.html

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ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHING
October 16, 2021
On this day in 1984, Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. I had only been involved in the Anti-Apartheid movement for about six months at that point, but I knew the name Desmond Tutu. Six months after he received the award, I protested outside the South African Embassy in Washington, D.C. Less than ten years later, I met Desmond Tutu in St. Louis, Missouri, when he was in town to preach at our denomination’s General Assembly. He remains one of my faith heroes, and among my favorite quotes: “My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.” It is one thing for some ivory tower philosopher to make such a claim, but for Desmond Tutu to say such a thing, amidst so much oppression and suffering, is powerful and prophetic. For him to look upon those who had committed atrocities against black citizens of South Africa, and still claim a common humanity is breath-taking or crazy or maybe both. Yet such a claim is rooted in some of the first words of scripture where we read about humanity being created in the image of God; male and female, God created them. Oh sure, people throughout Christian history have demonized and dehumanized certain groups in an attempt to exclude them from having the divine image. In this case, I’m pretty certain the Holy One of the Universe has a different opinion, and Jesus is God’s opinion enfleshed.

Keep me strong and focused, O Gracious God, for there are too many attempting to confuse and undermine the message of your love. May your Spirit fill me and then guide me to live a life that celebrates your image etched upon every living thing. Amen.

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ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHING
October 15, 2021
I would visit a friend’s office often, and on his wall was a beautifully framed poster which read: Happiness is experienced when you stop comparing yourself to others. Funny thing is that I envied my friend’s office. It had more square footage than my first apartment, a private bathroom and a door that lead to an outdoor prayer garden. It is one thing to read about the unhealthiness of envy and something very different to find a way of not being envious. The Bible reminds us to avoid envy, including Paul placing envy alongside debauchery, idolatry, hatred, jealousy, rage, drunkenness and orgies (Galatians 5:19-21). A person senses that envy is bad, according to Paul, but acknowledging one’s envy does not mean you are really doing anything about it. Christianity has a long history of telling people not to do certain things, while providing no explanation of how exactly a person might keep something like envy in check. A starting place is naming, not only the unhappiness in our lives, but the source of the unhappiness. We too often believe our unhappiness is directly connected to the fact we do not have something someone else has. We perceive happiness as something achieved on the other side of acquiring whatever “IT” is. Assuming we are talking about something other than basic items found on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, then the source of our unhappiness is probably found within. Envy is often connected to denial or avoidance. We do what is necessary to ignore the internal injury by casting our focus on something external. If only we could have, _________ (fill in the blank), then we would be made whole. Sadly, obtaining whatever we envied only provided a momentary pause from the pain. Soon our focus will be upon something else, once again avoiding the origin of the problem.

May your loving presence provide me courage, O Compassionate One, as I cast my vision inward and ask challenging questions about my own life, my unhappiness, my hurt. Amen.

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