President Obama pauses while addressing the nation from the White House briefing room the afternoon of the shooting massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. (Dec. 14, 2012) Below is the sermon I preached on December 16, 2012 at University Presbyterian Church, the third Sunday in Advent, in response to the shooting massacre … Continue reading “The Promise of Joy: A Response to the Massacre in Connecticut”
Category: grace
…On Gratitude as a Way of Life
As most of you know I have begun studies toward earning a Doctor of Ministry degree through McCormick Theological Seminary. In a little over one week I will be flying to Chicago for my first class (Nov. 11-16) called, “Where Three or More Gather.” The focus of the class is how we live in community: … Continue reading “…On Gratitude as a Way of Life”
Hope for Redemption?
One of the books I’ve been reading for my D.Min. program is by Mary McClintock Fulkerson called Places of Redemption: Theology for a Worldly Church. She follows a southern multiracial congregation through its trials and triumphs as they seek to be multicultural. Her book starts with this small United Methodist congregation as a dying white … Continue reading “Hope for Redemption?”
There is Hope…
This just in from the Covenant Network, reporting on a case that reached the highest commission in my denomination, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission, or GAPJC), involving the ordination of an openly gay woman who, in keeping with our tradition, declared a scruple (conscientious objection) to several parts of the … Continue reading “There is Hope…”
New Pastoral Call – Days 1 & 2
Tuesday I began a new call as pastor/teaching elder at University Presbyterian Church in Tempe, AZ. In their bulletin they describe themselves as an intentionally “open and affirming community” where “all are welcome.” It is refreshing! But, it is still a congregation in transition, as so many are these days. They have been without an … Continue reading “New Pastoral Call – Days 1 & 2”