Waxing Theological

5-14-17 (Easter 5A) Acts 7:55-60; John 14:1-14 Do Not Let Your Hearts Be Troubled I encountered a peculiar quandary this week as I started looking at the texts and preparing for worship.  It’s not often that the lectionary year and the calendar year end up being so weirdly at odds with each other - there’s a certain irony to be found in the fact that the lectionary readings for Mother’s Day are the stoning of Stephen and Jesus’ farewell discourse in which he says “there are many rooms in my Father’s house.”  And really - what do you do in that weird contrast?  What direction do you take this Sunday?  Did I want to change out the readings and find ones more thematically appropriate?  Or do you just focus on the readings themselves and let the whole Mother’s Day event take a place on the back burner? Interestingly enough, a connection became more apparent as I started to read more into the history and origins of Mother’s Day itself.  It’s not...

FPC Vandalia 5-7-17 (Easter 4A) Acts 2:42-47; Psalm 23; John 10:1-10 I Shall Not Want The Lord is my shepherd.  I shall not want. I shall not want. It’s such a small phrase, and yet it has so much packed into it.  I shall not want.  The psalmist goes on to describe that state of being cared-for by the divine shepherd: green pastures, still waters, protection from danger, defended from enemies.  The Lord is my shepherd, and under his care, I will want for nothing . Is it any wonder that we’ve found so much comfort in this Psalm for so many centuries?  That the image of Christ as Shepherd has held so strongly in our religious imagery and artwork, even as the role of the shepherd itself has diminished in an age of advancing technology and agriculture?  We take a certain pride in the notion: we are his sheep, he knows us each by name.  And when he calls us, we follow - when we wander and go astray, he seeks us out.  When w...

4-30-17 (Easter 3A) Acts 2:14a, 36-41; Luke 24:13-35 On the Road Again Two disciples are walking down a long and winding road.  It was a kind of journey they’d taken so many times over the last few years as they’d followed Jesus from village to village, town to town, listening to him proclaiming the news that the Kingdom of God was near.  He’d been surrounded by crowds on so many of those journeys, disciples, followers, and other hangers-on all around him… all of them clamoring for the savior’s attention, for just a touch of his hand and a glimpse of his amazing power. And yet this time, it was so much more different, so much more quiet.  It’s just these two disciples this time, Cleopas and his companion - they walk a lot more slowly than they did as they followed the Teacher, the urgency and energy gone from their steps.  Their heads are held low, their shoulders drooping as if they carry a great weight on them.  They talk about the events that...