Waxing Theological

9-23-18 (Proper 20/Ordinary 25 B, Semi-Continuous) James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a; Mark 9:30-37 Drawing Near to God In seven years of parenting, I’d like to think that my “trouble-sense” is starting to become more finely tuned.  Some situations are easier to anticipate than others, sure… but there are usually some clues that we can rely on to tell us that something’s fishy.  In our house, we tend to start getting nervous when we hear one of two things: repeated laughter or unexpected silence.  I can see the familiarity out there for some folks as you picture that moment - it’s been a busy day, the kids are home from school, homework is done and you’re starting to work on getting dinner ready when you start to hear giggling.  Perhaps you think nothing of it - after all, it’s normal for kids to giggle while they play.  But then there’s a moment of quiet, and then the giggling starts up again.  And that’s when your gut realizes: something’s fishy.  You ...

9-9-18 (Proper 18/Ordinary 23 B, Semi-Continuous) James 2:1-17; Mark 7:24-37 The Straw Letter Last October, we spent a good portion of the month celebrating the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther and the beginnings of the Protestant Reformation.  We explored many of the ideas that fueled Luther’s movement to reform the Catholic church in his time, celebrated our own heritage as Presbyterians, and explored how we as the church are “always reformed, ever reforming according to the word of God.” One of the things that we didn’t explore very much during that Reformation month was the relationship that Martin Luther had with the letter of James.  Of all the books of the Bible, all the letters in the New Testament, all the myriad works that make up the canon of our scriptures… James was the one that Luther disliked most.  Luther didn’t mince words when it came to this epistle - he called it “the epistle of straw,” suggested removing it from study in Wittenberg...

9-2-18 (Proper 17/Ordinary 22 B, Semi-Continous) James 1:17-27; Mark 7:1-23 Just Do It How many things are there in our lives that we do just because “it’s the way we’ve always done it?”  or because “that’s how I was taught to do it?”  How many of these things do we even stop for a moment to think about why we do them the way we do?  And how often have we used that same reasoning to explain why any other method of doing something is just simply wrong ? One of the best examples of this is sitting right in front of us right now - just about every time we celebrate communion in this church, the bread is nicely, carefully wrapped up in a linen napkin.  You’ll see this setup in many churches, though it sometimes has some variations - for example, some churches cover the whole table in a white cloth - but the general idea is the same.  Have you ever stopped and asked yourselves why that cloth is there?  Why do we cover the communion bread or ...