Reflections & Commentary Beyond the Sunday Sermon
Jesus states clearly that the field is the world and in my sermon I treated the presence of ‘weeds’ primarily from the outlook of the continued presence of evil in the world as a whole. That said, some commentators have viewed this parable as primarily explaining the presence of evil in the Church.
Read MoreIt’s an immense privilege to be included in God’s work of rescue and restoration. If we’re honest, it can also feel a tad overwhelming. Even while we may admit this work relies completely on the power of God, the breadth of the task and our commission make this easy to forget.
Read MoreIf you didn’t notice, we’re a small church…
Read MoreTo most of us, the language of family is not new when describing the church. However, I’ll be the first to say that it’s easy to relegate this reality to mere words with little action standing behind them. Sometimes it’s difficult for us to imagine how church life might look substantially different when we’ve known nothing else but the status quo. It’s difficult to see the problem if things have always been like this.
Read MoreBy referring to Jesus as “the last Adam”, Paul is telling us that Jesus has concretely altered the course of human history. Are we communicating that?
Read MoreBy referring to Jesus as “the last Adam”, Paul is telling us that Jesus has concretely altered the course of human history. Are we communicating that?
Read More“Is there any meaning to my life?” Certainly, the question has crept up on you before. Amidst running your kids to soccer practice, waking up on Monday to go to work again, brewing in the latest headlines, and the shock of a sudden death, the words of Macbeth bubble to the surface…
Read MoreAmong the groups/activities RCC will be engaging over the next 6 months, I mentioned in my last blog post the introduction of something we’re calling “Mission Groups.” The organizing principle of these groups is that people with common interests will get together once a month to engage in their common interests, whether it be knitting, hiking, working on cars, baking – the possibilities are nearly limitless.
Read MoreWhenever a New Year approaches, we typically start hatching plans for what our year will look like. Looking towards 2021, we’re understandably chastened after seeing our plans get shot down in 2020. Who knows what the next year will look like? Truly, only God knows. Even so, as your pastor for the next 6 months, I thought it would be good to sketch out for you RCC’s strategy for growing closer to God and to one another over the next 6 months.
Read MoreTomorrow is election day. Tomorrow is the day that stirs up within you both hope and fear.
Read MoreI’m tired of the virus, you’re tired of the virus - WE’RE ALL TIRED OF THE VIRUS. We’ve been twisted, over and over, like the rubber band engine of a balsa wood plane – we want to be let loose! I certainly wish I could overturn all the rules and go back to living life as it was. But the reality of the virus is inescapable and our responsibility in the face of it unavoidable.
Read MoreI remember how tense the classroom felt that first day. I had chosen this class to help fill out my degree program in Ethics & Society at Gordon-Conwell. I had chosen it with a great deal of apprehension, knowing how uncomfortable it might make me. Nevertheless, I believed I should take it.
Read MoreThey were afraid. The disciples were afraid. They had just witnessed the best man they had ever known be dragged before the authorities and nailed to a cross. Whose to say they wouldn’t be next? And if they were next, what would their deaths amount to? They were mere Jewish peasants. They were nobodies. When asked about their cause of death, their family and friends would say that foolishness was the cause. They would say that their leader proved to be nothing more than the king of a cross – they would say their end was sealed with his.
Read MoreWith last week behind me, I have gotten closer to adjusting to the present situation. I have gotten past the disbelief, accepted that this virus has forced us into a muddy ditch, and that our wheels are presently spinning. The good news is that we will get out of this, a tow truck is on its way. The bad news, of course, is that it might take a while.
Read MoreWhen I was boy in grade-school, we would begin every school-day by singing the song, “Onward, Christian Soldiers.” Even as we pledged our allegiance to the country, we would pledge our allegiance to the cause of Christ and follow it up with the first stanza:..
Read MoreI love history. I love hearing a good story and the best kind of story is the sort that is true. Reading history is good, but I especially love an oral telling, the kind of account you get in a classroom or in a documentary. Lately, I’ve enjoyed listening to history in podcast form, as told by Dan Carlin in his Hardcore History podcast. He has an auxiliary podcast feed called Hardcore History – Addendum in which he recently published a feature entitled “Glimpses of Olympias.” This episode tells the story of Alexander the Great’s mother, relating her cunning and malevolent ways. As he tells Olympias’ story, Carlin relates the depraved practices typically embraced during those pagan times – cultic orgies, rampant homosexual trysts, and brutal sexual violence. As I listened to Carlin depict the context in which Alexander lived, I was struck by how alien their standards were to the traditional moral values passed down to us in modern Western society. It becomes all the more striking when one remembers that Greek culture figures large in forming the bedrock of Western civilization. Clearly, Christian moral tradition that was later introduced led the West to dump the social acceptance of these practices.
And yet, what first struck me as alien, became disturbingly familiar as I recently searched for a show to watch one Sunday night.
Read MoreThe scene of the Nativity, set among hay and humble beasts, fringed by scruffy shepherds with their meek lambs, drawn together at the center by the sweet affection shared between mother and child, fills our eyes with what would seem to be the very picture of peace. The setting seems far removed from any field of battle, the mood completely absent of conflict. Yet this child who in the manger lay, was God the Son entering the human fray.
Read MoreThe scene of the Nativity, set among hay and humble beasts, fringed by scruffy shepherds with their meek lambs, drawn together at the center by the sweet affection shared between mother and child, fills our eyes with what would seem to be the very picture of peace. The setting seems far removed from any field of battle, the mood completely absent of conflict. Yet this child who in the manger lay, was God the Son entering the human fray.
Read MoreIn a previous post, I considered what might be the cause standing behind our experience of devotions as drudgery. Boiled down, I proposed that the problem stems from asking the wrong questions when it comes to devotional practice. When we consider Scripture reading and prayer, our minds tend towards a question like “How long?” rather than the more basic question, “Why?”
Read MoreMy heart sank on Monday night when I learned that Pat Orlinski had passed away. Despite all her recent physical hardships, there was no indication that she would be leaving us so soon. Death is always the worst of surprises.
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