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When God sits at your bedside
I am a pastor. I spend time with people, not only preaching and teaching, but also checking in on them, visiting them in the hospital, praying with them and talking with them before operations about which anxieties are high. But in March, the day after Ash Wednesday, the tables were turned. I spent almost three…
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In the Bleak Midwinter
Sitting at my window, I cannot make out what exists outside. The view is obstructed by the coat of ice on the interior of the century old windows in my century old flat. It is winter, I am not complaining. I am from Michigan and live in Wisconsin, long and cold winters are simply part…
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The Fourth Magus
I think that next Epiphany, I am going to add a fourth magus to my nativity. Why do we sing “We Three Kings…” and place three figures when we are never told that there were actually three? Why not two, or twenty? Far from trying to be difficult, though, my desire to add a fourth…
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Autumn
As I walk through Humboldt Park in my neighborhood in Milwaukee, I make the corner around the lagoon and before me is a tree which is ablaze but is not consumed. I have an impulse to remove my shoes. After all, I am standing on holy ground. Not because this sight makes it holy, but…
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Stepping Into the Unknown
My sermon from this past Sunday. Text was Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16. Faith. Hope. Assurance. Christianity has its own language, its own vocabulary, and for those who are new to the Christian faith or new to the church, the vocabulary can be somewhat confusing, with terms that are used so often and so frequently and…
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Choosing the Better Part
My sermon from this past Sunday. The text was Luke 10:38-42 Having people over is very enjoyable, but it can also be a lot of work. The apartment has to be cleaned, and depending how long people are staying, a guest room may have to be prepared, even if it is a make-shift room. food…
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Hump Day Hymns: Welcome, Sweet Day of Rest
Welcome, sweet day of rest, That saw the Lord arise; Welcome to this reviving breast, And these rejoicing eyes! The King himself comes near, And feasts his saints today; Here we may sit, and see him here, And love, and praise, and pray. One day amidst the place Where my dear God hath been, Is…
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Turning Faces
Sermon from this past Sunday. Text was Luke 9:51-62 This passage contains one of the most significant lines in the entire Gospel of Luke. It is pretty well hidden, though, you may not have recognized it. “He set his face to go to Jerusalem.” This is how the New Revised Standard Version reads. The New…
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Deep seated pieties
As I closed my eyes, I felt moved to a different time, and a different space. In becoming familiar with our denomination’s new hymnal, Lift Up Your Hearts, there was a hymn sing at the annual gathering of delegated Ministers of Word and Sacrament and Elders from the entire denomination from around the United States and Canada.…
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Assembling the church with young adults at the table
On Tuesday I leave for the meeting of the General Synod of the Reformed Church in America, the broadest assembly of my denomination, comprised of delegates from every region of the church from around the United States and Canada. It is the 207th regular session of the venerable assembly, and I never forget of the…
Matthew van Maastricht
Shepherd of Souls | Spiritual Director | Psychotherapist
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