Author Archives: Max Brennan

Friday’s Word

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They Know Not What They Do

I found it in a shop in a small Texas town.

It was a ceramic piece depicting a cross with an American flag. Hanging on the cross beam was a gun in a holster.

The motto: “My God, my gun, my country.”

“We sell a lot of those,” the shopkeeper said.

Does the maker of this piece know anything about Jesus? What about the shopkeeper selling it?

And what about those church people who support a man of vengeance for high office.

Do they know Jesus?

Can you be a Christian and ignore the heart of the gospel message?

And what is that core message? It is that God loves all of us all the time—no matter who we are or what we’ve done.

God loves even his enemies. That includes you and me from time to time.

And here’s the rest of that core message? We are to love like God loves.

We, too, are to love our enemies.

In Matthew 5:46, Jesus tells us to love those who do not love us.

Hurting people is out.

Vengeance is out.

So, what of those millions of church people who support a man of vengeance for high office?

Have they never heard the Word? Or have they heard it and rejected it?

I think they have never heard it—not from the pulpits in their churches.

This is where we need to remember what Jesus said from the cross:

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

I think many people who claim the name of Christ don’t know who they serve or what he stands for.

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Max’s Corner

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Help from a Great Preacher

We had a problem.

Mary was preaching elsewhere and I was in the hospital. Mary called my dear friend Rev. Eric McKinney, retired, and he drove up from Georgetown to fill the pulpit. And what a great sermon!

Our deepest thanks to Eric.

We would love for him to preach again—when he is already in town!

My Hospital Stay

When my leg began to swell on Friday, I knew what was happening. I was hospitalized “in screaming pain” last year with blood clots after COVID. It took surgery to remove the clots.

I went to emergency on Saturday, was placed on intravenous blood thinner and prepped for surgery on Monday. A CT scan showed the clot did not extend far enough up to require surgery. I’m back on Eliquis.

I was released late Monday. It is now Tuesday.

Swelling almost gone. A bit weak but feeling fine.

Will be back Sunday.

Mary preaches.

And we gather at the Lord’s table.

Breakfast this Sunday

A “Winston Sunday.”

Let’s have breakfast together—10:30 a.m.

Special Giving Sunday

This is it—May 5—Special Giving Sunday.

You may give extra if you are able. Our church needs extra help in May. If you are not able, do not give extra. The Lord will provide.

God Bless—MB

Administrative Board members, be prepared for a called Board meeting this Sunday after worship. We will discuss it with Board Chair Winston (and others) this Sunday to see if a brief meeting is necessary.

Friday’s Word

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No Bowls of Wrath

I remember an old Nichols and May routine from the 60s.

Mike Nichols played a man desperate to make a call on his one and only dime. Elaine May was the telephone operator.

He said to her, “Please don’t jiggle something with your elbow and make me lose my dime.”

She replied, “Sir, we don’t work with our elbows.”

I heard a preacher reading from Revelation the other day—the lines about God pouring bowls of wrath on humankind.

God doesn’t work with bowls of wrath.

I used to play the preacher game: Try to find something good to say about Revelation.

It’s in the Bible! It’s part of the canon!

Yes—and a theologically useless book. Tell it like it is. It’s a mess.

And it was not written by the author of the gospel and letters of John.

Unlike them, it is written in very poor Greek.

The worst thing about Revelation is that it contradicts the teaching of Jesus that we are to love our enemies for God loves his enemies.

In Revelation, God hates his enemies and treats them with unspeakable cruelty.

Like pouring bowls of wrath on them.

It has Jesus riding in on a white horse cutting off the heads of sinners.

We all know what Jesus does. He dies for sinners. All of us.

It is impossible to affirm the content of Revelation and also affirm what Jesus taught us about God.

The God we know in Christ is the only God there is. And God doesn’t work with bowls of wrath.

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Special Giving Week.

Help with Friday’s Word.

Max’s Corner

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A Tour Through History

Connie (Owensby) Eley reminds me I left out a lot of the joy in my run through the history of our congregation’s 128 years. That youth group in the late 60s and early 70s filled two rows in church every week. Her brother, our beloved Hubert Owensby, who passed last year, was a youth leader.

I also neglected to tell you that the folks still here in the early 80s when I came as pastor were fiercely loyal to this church—and very proud of St. Matthew.

This church has survived on love.

But I also wanted you to know that love alone won’t do it if we have no way to reach out to the world with that love.

Friday’s Word (or something like it) is still absolutely essential to the ongoing life of this church. We have lost a lot of people through death in the last three years. If you omit from our congregation the people we have gained through Friday’s Word during that time, we would have to be considered a dying church.

Why?—because we would be.

As long as we think of this as “Max’s project,” we are missing the point. This is our project.

Many once-large churches are gone from the East Side. We are still here. Let us give thanks.

Breakfast this Sunday

A “Bring It Sunday.” I’ll bring something.

Let’s have breakfast together—10:30 a.m.

Sunday’s Sermon

Sermon Sunday: That Great Getting’ Up Mornin’

I may sing a solo—if no one stops me.

Special Giving Sunday

You may give extra this Sunday if you are able. If you are not able, do not do so. The Lord will provide.

God Bless—MB

Prayer for our members who are ill. We miss you and think of you often. Our love to Tracy Maxwell.

Friday’s Word

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Jesus Got God Right

We can know God.

Millions of people have actually met God.

They have encountered God in experience.

Consider this from Bill Wilson, founder of AA. In a moment of desperation, he cried out to God to show himself:

Suddenly the room was filled with a bright white light. I felt an ecstasy beyond words. All about me and through me was a wonderful presence. I thought, so this is the God preachers talk about.

Here God answered a prayer both obviously and immediately.

I’ve had this happen to me a couple of times.

Every encounter with God gives us information about God. Every mystical event, every NDE, tells us something about God’s nature.

So, I began to wonder:

What kind of God would we come up with if we looked only at information from experiences?

I began work on my book, Discovering God. (Not yet published.)

I would set the Bible aside, set aside my own theology, and be entirely open to the God we meet in experience.

My book examines over 100 profound stories of personal encounters with God.

And what kind of God did I discover? A God of infinite love—the God we know in Christ. I even ended up at the Cross and the Resurrection.

I did not discover the rough and vindictive God of Revelation and some Old Testament passages.

That God does not exist.

In experience, we meet the God revealed in The Sermon on the Mount.

Experience tells us Jesus got God exactly right.

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Sunday, May 5, is Special Giving Day at St. Matthew. I invite your gift.