Together with my colleague Rev. Kevin Wright, we invited our community Sunday to demand better from each other and from our country. AMY: This week found us deep in grief, the growing fear pitting us increasingly at odds with each other. Why did this happen? Who deserves the most sympathy? Where can we place the blame? KEVIN: As our cacophony of questions grew louder, all of us could feel the distance between us growing, leaving room for fear to fester. ... Read more
1 Peter 2:13-30; 3:1-9 We find ourselves this morning grappling with a difficult text overlaid with so many mixed emotions carried into this sanctuary by each one of us after such a week. We’re cheering the launching of our children into the world–appropriate for this Father’s Day; and we’re wondering exactly what kind of world we’re launching them into as we mark the first anniversary of the massacre in Charleston in the wake of yet another act of bigotry... Read more
The following is a letter to pastors and church leaders. Colleagues: Sunday found us waking to the confluence of so many streams of hatred and vitriol in our society – homophobia, islamophobia, fear of the other in any form. “Here we find ourselves again,” we shake our heads in numb, benign dismay. It was yet another occasion, another in a long and bloody list, for us to publicly lament the violent loss of life and offer our thoughts and prayers,... Read more
1 Peter 2:1-9; 16 Just a few weeks ago during lunch on a senior staff retreat, I overheard my colleagues talking about how they intended to spend a few free afternoon hours. Some planned to nap, a few mentioned taking a walk along the nearby river. Fairly soon, inevitably, the conversation turned to sports; basketball in particular. Folks started mentioning their various sports pedigrees. Tales of conquests and bravado (in some cases, ancient history) got louder as they began to... Read more
1 Peter 1:3-9; 5:6-11 As is the case for most sermons on the topic of suffering for what you believe in, I don’t expect that you’re going to like this sermon all that much. Sorry. How’s that for a rousing beginning? Today we begin a three-week sermon series on the tiny epistle of 1 Peter, a letter toward the end of the New Testament that was written to Christians for whom the practice of their faith within the culture they... Read more
The world of college football was rocked last week — at least that’s what they tell me — when Baylor University demoted president Ken Starr and fired football coach Art Briles after the university’s board of regents received the results of a commissioned investigation into ongoing reports of sexual assault on Baylor’s campus, many incidences of which involved Baylor football players. Football of late has been a huge income generator for Baylor, as it is for many universities. And while... Read more
Hypocrisy always makes for a sexy story. Perhaps it’s the justice of seeing the self-righteous get a taste of their own medicine, or maybe it’s like a bad car crash: we can’t bring ourselves to look away. Whatever the reason, we love to call out the hypocrites among us, don’t we? I’d love to trumpet hypocrisy in the recent scandal around the possible ouster of the Baylor University president, but the gravitational pull toward hypocrisy is more than a salacious... Read more
Losing Our Minds Romans 5:1-5 Some authors have quoted church father Augustine of Hippo as saying, “If you try to understand the Trinity, you will lose your mind. But if you deny the Trinity, you will lose your soul.” Of course no one knows whether Augustine said this or not, but he did write extensively on the doctrine of the Trinity. All the church fathers—and I do mean fathers—spent much of their time, several centuries, in fact, codifying the doctrine... Read more
Pentecost always seems like such a celebration at church. At our church everyone wears red, a sea of commonality for a change. Often we hear different languages and dissonant music; we celebrate baptism and hear the voices of our children. It’s church in a messy cacophony, and everybody loves it. I find this love for Pentecost curious because we church folk don’t normally gravitate toward chaos. You know it’s true: we like order. We like worship to stay the same,... Read more
If We Knew Then… Acts 2:1-21 Growing up in a big family we were committed birthday celebrators. On your birthday, you’d get the You Are Special plate for breakfast and your favorite meal for dinner, and usually at least one time over the course of the day, Mom would talk about the day you were born, drag out the photo albums and exclaim about how cute you used to be. “Look at that adorable baby! How could we even imagine... Read more
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