Waxing Theological

8-26-18 (Proper 16/Ordinary 21 B, Semi-Continuous) Ephesians 6:10-20; John 6:59-69 Putting On the Armor of God Today is a special day in our church - a day in which we will be officially welcoming Grayson and Reid into our church family as we celebrate their baptisms.  I have to admit - I always get excited over being able to baptize people.  The sacrament of baptism always awes me, whether it’s an infant, a child, or an adult being baptized - it’s a sign of new beginnings, a reminder of God’s love and God’s promises to us.  It’s the opportunity for us as a community of believers to affirm the promises that God has already made to each of us, the grace that we have been given before we could even understand what grace was, as we witness those promises, those blessings of God enacted and represented in the pouring of water. Baptism, for all it represents, is a truly holy, truly sacred moment - and the more I thought about it in preparation for this Sunday...

8-19-18 (Proper 15/Ordinary 20 B, Semi-Continuous) 2 Kings 2:10-12; 3:3-14; Ephesians 5:15-20 Living Wisely It’s officially the start of a new school year.  We’ve packed our backpacks up, prepped our classrooms, gone to the open-houses, taken those first day of school pictures, welcomed our students and started back into the routines of homework, reading, art projects and math problems.  Some of our students have already been hard at work at sports practices before they even started their classes, and the first games are already underway.  In another week or so, we’ll have gotten back into the swing of things - you’ll have familiarized yourselves with the class schedules, get that morning routine locked in so you don’t miss the bus, and have a pretty solid idea finally of who needs to be where and when.  It’s a time of transition - not just in your schedules and routines, but also in the season itself.  The state fair is coming to an end today and a ...

8-5-18 (Proper 13/Ordinary 18 B Semi-Continuous) 2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a; Ephesians 4:1-16 Humble Pie Living in Missouri these five years, we’ve picked up a few sayings and turns of phrase that aren’t as commonly used on the East Coast.  “Y’all” has slowly but surely come to replace our more familiar Pittsburgh “Yinz.”  “Supper” is more often what we have in the evening now instead of “dinner,” though the rules on those terms are still a bit elusive.  We’ve finally started putting our groceries in “sacks” instead of bags, for the most part, and while we haven’t gotten around to calling it such for ourselves, we’ve finally gotten fully used to other people calling a toilet “the stool.” The passage today from 2nd Samuel, however, brings to mind another phrase entirely - and though it’s used somewhat on the East Coast and people are familiar with it, it has a much more pronounced place in the usages of the Midwest - you see, David got himself served a good old...