Waxing Theological

10-25-15 (Proper 25/Ordinary 30 B, Semi-Continuous) Psalm 34; Mark 10:46-52 It’s the Little Things The musical, “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown,” takes a number of classic strips from Charles M. Schultz’ Peanuts and adapts them to the stage.  We follow Charlie Brown and the gang through a number of different scenes and mis-adventures before coming to the end of the day.  In the final scene of the show, Charlie Brown walks on stage with a pencil dropped by his ever-elusive “little red-headed girl.”  He comments, “I’m so happy!  That little red-headed girl dropped her pencil.”  He observes that it has teeth-marks all over it and that she chews her pencil, then his face lights up as he realizes and exclaims “She’s human!”  and then muses that it hasn’t been such a bad day after all.  The closing song of the show is then all of the characters singing the song “Happiness,” which lists all the things that they think happiness is: finding a pen...

10-18-15 (Proper 24 / Ordinary29 B, Semi-Continuous) Hebrews 5:1-10; Mark 10:35-45 The Servant King The banner scrolls across the screen and the news anchor begins his welcome to the millions of viewers tuning in on television screens across the globe.  Crowds in the thousands have gathered in the auditorium, eager to watch and listen.  The podiums stand dark on a dimly lit stage, looking almost eager themselves to welcome the eloquent speakers who are about to stand behind them and share their views on a variety of hot-button issues. The stage is set for the first great debate, the debate that will quite literally shape the campaign for all of these hopeful candidates.  The moderator is introduced, the rules are explained, and the audience primed to welcome the candidates.  One by one, each candidate is introduced… until something strange happens.  The moderator calls the name of the next candidate.  The crowd erupts in applause for a good...

10-11-18 (Proper 23 / Ordinary 28 B, Semi-Continuous) Hebrews 4:12-16; Mark 10:17-31 With God, All Things Are Possible It was Sunday morning; Johnny and his family were busily getting ready to go to church.  After his dad helped him get his tie on, he reached into his pocket, pulled out a quarter and gave it to Johnny.  He said, “I want you to hold onto this to put into the offering plate in church today - don’t lose it!”  And so, as Johnny’s mother and father finished getting ready for church, Johnny played contentedly in the living room with his toys and watched cartoons on TV.  And as Johnny played, he’d reach into his pocket every once in a while, pull out the shiny quarter, and make sure that he still had it.  Johnny’s mom finished putting on her makeup as Johnny’s dad wiped the last of the shaving cream from behind his ears.  When they came back into the living room, they heard Johnny sobbing, trying desperately to keep his parents from he...

10-4-15 (World Communion Sunday) Revelation 7:9-17; Mark 8:1-10   Feasting from the Altar of the World     Water.  Bread.  Fish.  Fruit.  By themselves, they’re such simple things - they’re ordinary, even common.  Water covers 3/4 of our planet.  We include bread with most of our meals and in various forms - biscuits, breadsticks, waffles, toast, crackers, tortillas, and more grace our plates and add dimension to our food.  We have fruit juice with breakfast, eat fruit as part of a balanced meal or as a snack, add fruit to our deserts for its natural sweetness, and more.  We partake of these things all of the time without a second thought.     And yet it is with such simple things as these that the miraculous happens.  We don’t hear the story often from Mark’s gospel, as we tend to explore the feeding of the five thousand more frequently, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and make a weird stateme...