Waxing Theological

5-25-14 (Easter 6A) Acts 17:22-31; John 14:15-21                                                                      Believing Is Seeing     As we continue to explore the growth and beginnings of the church, we take this week to join the apostle Paul on his missionary journeys as he enters into the city of Athens.  Paul has been going from city to city, meeting with Jews and Gentiles alike and proclaiming the gospel.  In his journeys, Paul has nearly been killed by crowds who have tried to stone him.  He has been thrown in prison.  But he continues along, going from one city and town to another and proclaiming the gos...

5-18-14 (Easter 5A) Acts 7:55-60; John 14:1-14                                                                          Heart Troubles     Do not let your heart be troubled, the savior says.  Do not let your heart be troubled.  But how could their hearts not have been troubled?  How could they not be worried, confused, and scared as their leader, their teacher, and their friend is sitting with them, telling them that this meal he shares with them will be their last together and that he is about to be betrayed by one of them, then denied by the greatest of them?  It would be enough to worry anyone - ...

5-11-14 (Easter 4A) Acts 2:42-47; John 10:1-10                                                                   Living Abundantly     Today in the Gospel we do something a little strange - we’ve been exploring the day of resurrection itself for several weeks, looking at the disciples’ encounters with the risen Christ.  But this chapter in John comes much earlier - we’re jumping backwards in the story to hear more of Jesus’ teachings for a moment.  Suddenly, instead of the amazed face of the disciples bursting into the locked room and declaring “He is risen,” we’re back near the pool of Siloam, looking at the amazed and puzzled face of the man...

One of the things we do at the church is to put together a monthly newsletter in addition to the weekly email updates we send out.  I write a little note "From the Pastor's Desk" thinking about the month, the season, or what have you that gets included in that newsletter.  As I wrote this particular month's note, I realized that it was turning into something a bit more reflective, so I wanted to continue that thought here on the blog.  To those for whom those two worlds intersect, you'll see a lot repeating itself from the newsletter - I promise, I'm not being (entirely) lazy and just copy-pasting from one to another, but I think I could have written an entire newsletter myself if I hadn't cut it short.     When we moved into the manse in August, as we realized that this little corner of South Lindell street was where we’d be calling home, one of the first things we noticed was a number of small metal signs stuck into the beds of mulch that surrounded t...

5/4/14 (Easter 3A) Acts 2:14, 36-41; Luke 24:13-35                                                                              Seeing Jesus     As we move into this third week of Easter, I’m realizing something that I’d never thought of before - and I’m still amazed as I continue to think about it even now: this one, spectacular day of resurrection - this earth-shattering, mind-blowing, reality-transforming event - is the only event in the entire lectionary that gets so many Sundays devoted to its exploration.  We have the season of Advent during Christmas, and it takes several weeks to c...

4-27-14 (Easter 2A) 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31                                                                            No Doubt      So here we are - it’s just after Easter Sunday.  We’ve celebrated the big day of the church, we’ve shouted out “He is Risen” with joy and excitement.  And many of us have now spent the last week recovering somewhat after the busy-ness and excitement of Holy Week.  So as we come together today, it’s an interesting and kind of strange time to find ourselves in inside the church year.  For many churches, this is a Sunday much like the Sunday after Chr...

4/20/14 (Easter Sunday, Year A) Sermon Text John 20:1-18; Colossians 3:1-4 Raised with Christ      Today, we celebrate together.  We celebrate for a multitude of reasons - we celebrate because it is Easter.  We celebrate because we will be baptizing people into the family of God.  We celebrate because we are welcoming so many people into our specific church family through their baptism, confirmation, transfer, and profession of faith.  And we celebrate because as one, holy, universal church we affirm together that wonderful news proclaimed throughout the centuries - “He is Risen!”           It’s a wonderful time in the church year - many of us have spent the last six weeks in Lent, having given up one thing or another.  Today, that time of fasting comes to a close as we celebrate the Resurrection: for those of you who have given up chocolate, I hope you’ve already taken the time this morning t...