Category Archives: Church

January 29, 2012 · 7:12 pm

The Cleansing of the Temple: The Gospel According to John, Chapter 2:13-17

Paul Zahl wrote once that the Holy Spirit interacting with mortal man is very analogous to the interaction between living magma and the environment at the surface.

Magma, (Lava when it gets to the surface of the Earth) is about as close to an irresistible force as can be found in nature as humans experience it; it devours or melts all in its path. The only thing that can contain it is the interaction itself. The same interaction inevitably cools the lava, so that it becomes as the other rock, and even a dam or plug against a fresh outpouring.

The Temple was to be the place where man could look to God. Continue reading →

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January 23, 2012 · 11:57 pm

Reflections on a visit to Christ Church (Episcopal), Eagle Lake, Texas

I had a wonderful time visiting Christ Church (Episcopal) in Eagle Lake on this past Sunday, January 22. I drove up from Houston for the 10:00 Eucharist.  The Rt. Rev’d C. Andrew Doyle, Bishop of Texas, was there for a Confirmation (4! young adults, roughly the same age as I was when I became an Episcopalian), and two Baptisms. Quite a great day for a small church. Continue reading →

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January 16, 2012 · 11:50 pm

Write a Commentary for Lent

I have begun a new project, one that is so far above me that it embarrasses be to mention it. I would not, except I have found that when I don’t confess my plan, I am likely to shrink back. When I don’t make my thoughts public, I am free to make them sloppy. So I am writing my own commentary on “The Gospel According to John”
Continue reading →

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November 19, 2011 · 10:34 pm

Is the Bible the “Word of God” or is it a human book?

I had a thought last week during a Bible study class on Deuteronomy.  The leader of the group is a thoroughly “Bible-Believing” Christian. He is highly educated, with advanced degrees in Biblical scholarship, and is thus immersed in current academic understandings of the authorship of the ancient texts of the Hebrew scriptures.

 This presented a challenge, and something of a threat, to some members of the group, who understood the Torah as being of Mosaic authorship, and any move away from that as a move away from Divine inspiration.

 Now, I have no dog in that fight. But the ideas expressed had a familiar ring to them. Continue reading →

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November 19, 2011 · 8:12 pm

Singing in Harmony: an objection to Deitrich Bonhoeffer (or what I learned from the music ministry of Church of the Redeemer)

 “ ‘Sing and make melody in your heart to the Lord’ (Eph. 5:19). …

‘Because it is bound wholly to the Word, the singing of the congregation, especially of the family congregation, is essentially singing in unison. Here words and music combine in a unique way. The soaring tone of unison singing finds its sole and essential support in the words that are sung and therefore does not need the musical support of other voices. …

‘Unison singing, difficult as it is, is less of a musical than a spiritual matter. Only where everybody in the group is disposed to an attitude of worship and discipleship can unison singing, even though it may lack much musically, give us the joy which is peculiar to it alone.’ ”

from Life Together, The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

It is only with the greatest trepidation that I would dare to dissent from such a saint as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, but this section of “Life Together” has bothered me since I first read it over thirty years ago. The ideas have nagged at me as I have seen changes in congregational singing between parishes, and even in the way congregational music is published. My renewed time and extended visitation among the folk of Houston’s Church of the Redeemer (Episcopal) has both confirmed and solidified my objections.  It is time I gave them voice. Continue reading →

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November 2, 2011 · 5:04 pm

A review of “This is My Story, This is My Song” by Betty Pulkingham

Many people who will read this will already know who Betty Pulkingham is. Her first husband, the Rev. Graham Pulkingham was a founding visionary in the Renewal movement in the Episcopal Church, and very important Rector of Houston’s Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in the 1960’s and 1970’s.

In her own right, Mrs. Pulkingham is one of the most important contributors of the music from that period and beyond. This description is totally inadequate, but if I used all the space this format will allow, I would still fall short.

Probably the best short summary of Betty’s true importance came to me from a local Methodist pastor, who voiced to me his private and very serious opinion that in years to come, Betty Pulkinghman will be honored, for her musical gift to the church, as of equal importance with Charles Wesley.

  I have just finished reading Betty Pulkingham’s new book,
“This is My Story, this is My Song: A Life Journy”

What a beautiful, grace-filled little book! Continue reading →

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September 22, 2011 · 4:09 pm

Embracing the real, not “what I think should be real”

As a funeral director,  I think one of the wisest passages concerning grief and celebration is straight from the (Episcopal) Book of Common Prayer: Continue reading →

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August 21, 2011 · 2:20 pm

Thoughts on Marriage (or, “An Exercise in Hubris”)

A friend of mine wrote a brief blog post on a subject I have been ruminating on for a few years, the purpose of marriage. His post compels me to write. I dare not say this is exactly in opposition to him, for he writes with several advantages over me:

  1. First of all, he has actually been successful, while I am twice married and twice divorced. The fact that both of my marriages and divorces were to and from the same woman may tell for or against me; I will leave that alone.
  2. He is demonstrably smarter than I am.
  3. He is a priest (Anglican/Episcopalian, hence #1 above) and has actually studied more than a little on these subjects. Mine was Psychology and Computer Technology, and much longer ago
  4. His post is full of biblical references,which he uses accurately.
  5. And most difficult for me, he is right.

Facing all these issues, how could I possibly resist the urge to stick in my own oar?

Continue reading →

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July 18, 2011 · 6:34 pm

Yesterday, at the Church of the Redeemer

Yesterday, I went back to Redeemer.

God! What a statement! I had some idea of what I wanted
to say, why I wanted to write; but I had not formed any words in my head until
my fingers hit the keyboard. This is what came out, unannounced, a total
surprise to me. I have often spoken of writing as letting my pen speak to me,
and I am bowled over by what it has said. Continue reading →

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March 5, 2011 · 10:03 am

A Poem of Restoration and Thanksgiving

As I continue to process the story of The Church of the Redeemer, Episcopal (Houston), I remembered a bit of a poem another person  with a past at Redeemer had posted. I wish I could remember who, that person has earned my gratitude!

 I finally found it. It nearly perfectly captures my emotions, particularly in what I understand as God’s redemption of that period of my life, particularly the final stanza.
I have reposted it here.

Continue reading →

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