(Message given at Newberg Friends Church on August 17, 2014) Matt. 5:33-37 My wife Elaine has been watching TED talks. She’s working her way through the list of the all-time most watched TED talks. Mostly that’s a cool thing, because she’s learning a lot and …
Read MoreSexuality…in Context
(Message given at Newberg Friends Church, August 10, 2014) We’re in this series on the sermon on the mount, and today’s section has adultery, sexuality, gouging your eyes out, divorce…really not many places you can go wrong there, right? Whose bright idea was this series anyway? If I …
Read MoreMy Responsibility
(Message given at Newberg Friends Church on August 3, 2014) I made this great pitch two weeks ago about how great it was going to be to study the teaching of Jesus in the sermon on the mount. Then Elizabeth did a great job last …
Read More“You don’t understand”–Finding a Path in an Era of Religious and Political Extremism
“You don’t understand…Hamas wants to wipe Israel out of existence, off the face of the earth. I have no compassion for Palestinians.” “You don’t understand…you can talk about love all you want, but if you don’t let gay people live out their sexuality to the …
Read MoreWay Forward?
(These words and thoughts are my own. I am not in any clerk position in our Yearly Meeting and do not speak for our Yearly Meeting. As a community, we have not discussed many of these ideas, but I offer them in hope that these …
Read MoreGood News first, THEN teaching
(Message given at Newberg Friends Church on July 20, 2014) Mauri Macy used to have us sing familiar hymns, but we would sing them to an alternate tune. Years ago, I had developed this elaborate picture in my mind of how he did this. I …
Read MoreWorship and Purpose-Part 5
(Message given at Newberg Friends Church on July 6, 2014) At the beginning of June, we started this series on the purpose of the church and the purpose of worship. We’ve been trying to set out some of the foundational beliefs we have about church. …
Read MoreWorship and Purpose- Part 4
(Message given at Newberg Friends Church on June 29, 2014) For the last couple of years, I have been wrestling with what I am beginning to think is one of the fundamental divides in Christianity. It comes out in a variety of ways, but I’ve …
Read MoreWorship and Purpose-Part 3
(Message given at Newberg Friends Church on June 22, 2014) For several weeks, I’ve been trying to build a case. We’re in a series where we are looking at the purpose of worship and the purpose of our church. In times of transition, it’s important …
Read MoreWorship and Purpose-Part 2
(Message given June 15, 2014 at Newberg Friends Church. We had great discussion at the end in both of the services.) Any of you ever spend time doing mazes? I was obsessed with these things in like fourth and fifth grade. I got to the …
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