Highlight – Colossians 2:11-13

“And in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions” (Colossians 2:11-13). Continue reading →

Highlight – Matthew 19:3-9

“Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?’ And He answered and said, ‘Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh”? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.’ “They said to Him, ‘Why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?’ He said to them, ‘Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery’” (Matthew 19:3-9). Continue reading →

The Eleventh Hour

Jesus told a parable in which He described the kingdom of heaven as being “like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard” (Matthew 20:1-16). In this parable, the land owner went out at various times throughout the day – early in the morning, the third hour, sixth hour, ninth hour, and the eleventh hour. Each time, he found those who had not yet been called to work and invited them to labor in his vineyard. At the end of the parable, when the workday was over, the land owner paid wages to each of the laborers. Starting with the last group and going to the first, every one was paid a denarius – the amount which had been promised to the ones hired at the beginning of the day. While this caused the first group who had worked all day to question the fairness of this, the landowner explained that they received what they were promised and that he was allowed to be generous with what was his own. Continue reading →

What Color Is the Church?

The question in the title may sound strange, but it is inspired by an article that appeared on The Christian Century website: How to be a purple church in a red state. The colors refer to those commonly used to signify the two major political parties in the United States – red for Republicans and blue for Democrats. A “purple church” is one made up of “people from various political or even religious backgrounds” where “all voices are given space.” The quote above is from Josh Scott, pastor of the Morgantown Community Church and one of the two pastors featured in the article. In what Scott described as “our very traditional, largely fundamentalist community,” he is endeavoring to lead people on a “journey into progressive Christianity.”* Continue reading →