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 …
Tag: Woodridge UMC
New math: With > 2 & 4
I am an American Baptist. I grew up attending an American Baptist church and I am ordained by the American Baptist Churches USA. However (and oddly), I’ve spent the last 15+ years serving as one of the pastors of the Woodridge United Methodist Church. As The United Methodist Church is about ten times bigger than …
What do teens think about bin Laden?
God's love extends even into the place we think is, by definition, the absence of God. Over the last two weeks, the responses to the news that Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden have been legion. As have been the tone of those responses. In all that I have read, this post by Eugene Cho …
Finding a new leadoff hitter
During our worship services this Easter Sunday, I got to read the lesson from Acts 10. I added a little prologue because the prescribed reading from the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) begins in the middle of the story. It's a story that's too good, too important to skip over. In fact, I argue that it …
“You can cha-ange the world…”
Saturday, May 14 is the United Methodist Church’s second annual Change the World Day, how will you participate? Not every detail is chiseled in stone yet, but here’s how the church at which I serve, Woodridge UMC, will join the effort and be counted: Free T-shirts! Yep, that’s right, all Change the World participants will …
Glimmer of hope?
Did you know Bishop Jung commended my church this week? I encourage you to read the full statement, but here’s the money quote: As United Methodists, we express that our God calls us to work together with all people to overcome injustice. In our Book of Resolutions, we affirm that our Muslim neighbors are our …
“Frankenstein, a Mummy & Life After Life-After-Death”
No, I haven't gone crazy (ok, crazier), I haven't lost my calendar, and I don’t mistakenly think it’s Halloween…but I do find the stories in this week’s Lectionary texts from Ezekiel 37 and John 11 compellingly weird, if a tad macabre. So the title of this post …
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“Water, water, everywhere…”
[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 …
Wisdom speaking?
Some time ago I was given a hand-written note on an obviously oft-folded piece of paper. The giver, Vi, is one of the sweetest women you could ever hope to meet. She passed her 90th birthday several years ago but continues to be an active part of our church. The note was meant for our …
That’s Some Salty Language!
That's the title. And that's about as far as I've gotten on my sermon for Sunday. Well, ok, that's not entirely true. I've read the texts for this week: Isaiah 58:1-12 and Matthew 5:13-20. Isaiah and Jesus offer startling definitions of righteousness - of how God wants people to live. And I've read some commentary on those …
All That I Can't Leave Unsaid 