Month: February 2025

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2025 Ash Wednesday Service

Ash Wednesday is this coming Wednesday (March 5). The Wednesday evening Bible/book study on Paul the Progressive? The Compassionate Christian’s Guide to Reclaiming the Apostle as an Ally will be replaced with a Service of the Imposition of Ashes at 7:00 p.m. All other Wednesday activities will follow the regular schedule.

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Cross and Flame Are Back Up!

Thanks to Brian Kabriel for taking the lead on getting the faded Cross and Flame taken down, taken to be repainted, and then put back up. And a Hat Tip to Sheffield Tree Service for being willing to bring their truck back. Photos by Brian Kabriel and John Collins.

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Turning the Other Cheek as an Act of Resistance

This quote didn’t make it into yesterday’s sermon, but I wanted to share it here:

“When the teachings of the Sermon on the Plain are not grounded in the disciple’s identity as God’s child, they become an onerous list of ethical demands that do not further justice and wholeness. When the disciple understands his actions as flowing out of God’s abundance, to which he belongs and which belongs to him, turning the other cheek becomes an act of resistance to evil that has the power to transform others and the world.” [1]

[1] Susan E. Hylen, “Luke 6:27-38: Theological Perspective,” essay, in Feasting on the Word: Year C, Vol. 1: Advent Through Epiphany (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009).

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Welcoming New Members

Today we had the joy of welcoming three new members: Augusta Lynch, Kayla Engle, and Rosie Engel. Please take the time to let them know how happy you are to have them as part of our church family.

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Calling Out the Evil of Ending USAID

For my own sake, I need to say clearly and directly, that what was done to USAID was evil. This is the backdrop against which I’m preparing my sermon on Jesus’ command that we love our enemies.

Link: “‘We Are Seeing Complete Destruction’: The Damage Done by the U.S.A.I.D. Freeze”

A clarification: I’m not preaching about what was done to USAID, but I am angry about it, and it was in the context of that anger that I found myself writing a sermon on the necessity of loving our enemies. 

A disclaimer: As I’ve shared previously, my brother’s job was funded by USAID. I don’t think what was done to USAID was evil because of my family connection, but I am more aware of it for that reason

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Activities Cancelled, Office Closed Today

Manhattan Public Schools are closed today (and school districts all around us are closed as well), so the church office will be closed today (Wednesday, February 19, 2025), and all activities this evening are canceled. I’m disappointed in the weather, but I prefer to see everyone safe and sound when the weather improves.

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What We Do With the Time Given to Us

J. R. R. Tolkien, who wrote The Lord of the Rings was also translated the book of Jonah for The Jerusalem Bible. He as a devout Christian and even though he did not write The Lord of the Rings as an explicitly Christian book, we as Christians can learn a great deal about our faith from it. Here is one of the most meaningful exchanges of the book as a Hobbit named Frodo and a Wizard named Gandalf discuss the dark times they live in and the difficult task ahead of them.

“‘I wish it [the growth of evil] need not have happened in my time,’ said Frodo.

‘So do I,’ said Gandalf, ‘and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” — J. R. R. Tolkien [1]

Let us choose wisely how to use the time that God has given to us.

[1] J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings One Volume (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2005), Chapter 2, “The Shadow of the Past.”