Category: Church
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Digressions in Church Polity: There are no members of the Reformed Church in America
For anyone familiar with my ecclesiastical communion, the Reformed Church in America, or anyone who has read my writing elsewhere as of late, perhaps you are aware of the struggles that our communion is facing regarding differing understandings of human sexuality. However, the real issues are much deeper, the real issues are the things below…
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The tension of the green season
Sunday begins the long season after Pentecost with the green liturgical color. As a young child, I remember that we called it “the growing season.” Which fits both with the color and with the orientation. We call this season “ordinary time,” that is, there is nothing special. No Christmas, no Easter, no Pentecost. No special…
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A letter to Martin Luther on Reformation Day
Dear Martin, Here we are, October 31st almost five hundred years after you posted your concerns on the town bulletin board, and the church is more divided than it has ever been. For better or for worse, that date has gone down in the annals of history as the day we broke the church. That…
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Wounds in the Body of Christ
Eendracht maakt Macht These words adorn the banner at the bottom of the crest of the Reformed Church in America. Often the translation into English is, “Unity makes strength” but, as I understand it, a better translation is “Concord makes strength” — a pulling together like a team of horses. *** The Christian church today…
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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…
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“‘…for I am the LORD who heals you.’”
I have a parishioner, I will call him Larry. Larry has been battling cancer for some time, and has seemed to be losing the battle. It has metastasized in different places, and just a few short weeks ago, he did not expect to be here by Christmas. The pain was unbearable even with pain medicine,…
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this building is a mess
At 8:30pm standing over a flooding floor drain with a wet/dry vacuum trying to control the incessant water is not how I typically picture spending my one day off. However, this is exactly how I spent four and one half hours of my day off: sucking up water, and emptying the bucket. The only redeeming…
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…God First Loved Us
I had the privilege of administering my first baptism yesterday. It was an infant who was recently born of one of the families in our congregation. It was a wonderful celebration of the sacrament of baptism. The liturgy is beautiful, the child was adorable and dressed in this lovely white dress. She fussed a little…
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Earnestly Praying for Peace
“Pray for peace.” This is a common thing to say. I pray for peace. Mostly, however, I’ve prayed for the idea of peace, I’ve never had to actually earnestly pray for peace before. The Milwaukee area is still on edge from the massacre at the Sikh temple in one of the south suburbs. We have…
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The Minister as Particular Theologian
I have not been very faithful the last couple of weeks in my writing. The reason for that is largely because I have been immersed in writings by and about Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758). Jonathan Edwards is most known for his sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” This is, of course, in a…
Matthew van Maastricht 