Dave Buerstetta on striving to do justice and love others while walking humbly with God
Yes, we here in the Chicago area are enjoying an extra 19 seconds of daylight today compared to December 21st. And somehow it does feel a little lighter around here. But the shortest day was just Tuesday. That longest night in the midst of this exceptionally long year (remember when we thought 2021 was going …
I'm just skating right past my failure at producing posts on the regular this month and just going with a flurry of activity. Hope you'll bear with me as I think there are at least a couple decent nuggets of goodness to be found. I got to preach the first and last Sundays of Advent, …
It seems to me that a lot of us relish these days after Christmas. As much as we might love gathering with family, exchanging gifts, and sharing meals, there is often as sense of relief that, as we often say, "we made it through" the holiday. We breath a collective sigh of relief and relax …
Excellent words from Father Richard Rohr: "Christianity is a lifestyle—a way of being in the world that is simple, non-violent, shared, inclusive, and loving." He continues: We made it, however, into a formal established religion, in order to avoid the demanding lifestyle itself. One could then be warlike, greedy, racist, selfish, and vain at the …
This Sunday night is the first trial run for a new alternative worship gathering at my church. I'm definitely experiencing that typical emotional cocktail of excitement (We're doing something new! An idea of mine that others have helped birth!) and nervousness (What if no one attends? What if we suck? What if we think it's …
Earlier this week, my friend, Steve Knight, shared a link on Facebook to a blog post by Ed Cyzewski. (Good grief, that’s a tortured sentence. Such is the destructive power of social media.) Ed writes: We still haven’t sought the guidance of female leaders as if the integrity of our witness and the reflection of …
As I continue to prepare my sermon for tomorrow’s worship - it’s Pentecost Sunday! - I seem to have a lot of different ideas swirling through my head. So I thought I would share them with you. Welcome to the chaos that is my brain function! 1. First of all there’s the scripture for the …
[Pretty much every week, I write a...something...for my church's weekly eNewsletter. Way back when, it was my take on a pastoral letter. Then some time along the way, I started thinking of it more like a newspaper's opinion column. Now I suppose I think of it as a blog post. Whatever I write for eNews usually ends …
I need to ask you a question. It is, admittedly, a slightly impertinent question. But first, a quick story. I’m guessing this will sound familiar to many of you. As a dad, there are a number of conversations with our kids that I find myself having over and over. Which is to be expected, right? …
Thanks to a link on Twitter from Kimberly Knight, I became aware of this Clergy Against Bullying petition. In tone and message, the petition is a companion to my Oct. 10 sermon. I encourage you to go read the whole thing (it's not that long, especially as joint statement press releases go). Here's the opening …
Continue reading Speaking Out: Clergy Against Bullying and Anti-Gay Violence
All That I Can't Leave Unsaid 