Todays Thought Archives - Calvary United Church of Christ

Todays Thought

February 26, 2021

Legal Bigotry The article appeared on page 3 of our local paper today – a 3 inch high, 3 column report that you would probably miss if you were skimming the news. It was yesterday, with little fanfare, that the House passed a bill to extend civil rights to LGBT people. The vote was almost…

February 25, 2021

Inclusion When our congregation was going through the Open & Affirming process (to publicly accept people who were LGBTQ, primarily), we had, as expected, a number of people who disagreed. The disagreements ranged from people who had very religiously conservative friends (they were embarrassed) to those who didn’t like the public nature of it (why…

February 24, 2021

Supernatural I get into interesting discussions all the time with people who have different ideas and values than I do, and I really cherish the insights they bring to the conversation. Not long ago I was talking to a man who claimed to be opposed to religions of all kinds – he was one of…

February 23, 2021

Legalism By now you probably know that I was a United Methodist pastor for 15 years before I moved over to the United Church of Christ. I loved the UMC – the theology of works and grace, the rich history and traditions, the people in the congregations – all of this made me glad to…

February 22, 2021

Practice Makes Perfect? I don’t think so I was lucky to grow up in a school district that encouraged the arts and was willing to pay for good teachers and supplies. Maybe it was our proximity to New York City – I don’t really know – but we had excellent programs and productions. One of…

February 18, 2021

You Never Know One of the things I am most proud of is my education – I have a BA, an MDiv, a DMin, and a Ph.D. I know, that’s a lot of letters. I firmly believe that I have done all of this, not because I am that smart, but because I am that…

February 17, 2021

Ash Wednesday I grew up in a middle-of-the-road United Methodist Church that was – let’s be honest – pretty drab. Our worship never changed much, except for the pagan rituals of Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, and most of the people liked it that way. I remember the first time I attended a Roman…

February 16, 2021

The Whole Truth, Part 2 When we last left our hero (okay – not really), he had just been blamed (by the wife) for the failure of a marriage. Although she knew of the husband’s porn addiction, it was never brought it up in the months leading up to the wedding, and it eventually destroyed…

February 15, 2021

The Whole Truth – Part 1 A young couple walked into my church looking for a place to have their wedding. We get this a lot – our beautiful sanctuary is a work of art, and I could, if I was willing, do a wedding or two every weekend (I am not and I don’t).…

February 12, 2021

Punishment In John 8 there is a peculiar story about a woman who was caught in the act of adultery. The crowd brings her before Jesus, and some of the people gathered there who are Scribes and Pharisees (this is always overdone, by the way), ask Him what should be done about her. They remind…