Back in the pulpit this Sunday after a two-weeks absence due to illness.

Remember the classic novelty song from the late 50s: Yakety Yak?

Take out the papers
and the trash—
Yakety yak, yakety yak.

Ah, they don’t write them like that anymore.

But that’s what we will be doing in a series of sermons over the next few weeks: taking out the trash.

Trash theology, that is.

In visiting old churches in England, I noticed the ground beneath the east window often rises up on the church. That’s because so many people wanted to be buried there—close to the altar inside the church.

If you had money (like Mr. Shakespeare) you could be buried in front of the altar inside.

It was believed that those closest to the altar would be the first to rise on Resurrection Day.

Silly—including the idea of a Resurrection Day.

It’s trash theology.

We are “raised” the moment we die. Life continues uninterrupted.

In a spiritual world, we will have no use for those bones in the ground.

(Or that powder after a cremation.)

Paul said, “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.” And every NDE tells us the soul, the true self, our consciousness, lives on.

Yet, surprisingly, many people still believe that, at death, we enter some “great sleep,” to be awakened at the “General Resurrection.”

Even the theologian John Pokingham says, “God will remember us back into existence.” Great minds can come up with dumb ideas–and bad theology.

This Sunday we will take more bad theology out with the trash.

Join us at 11:00.

In-person, if you can.

Hello, Max—I have read you over the years and I appreciate your thought and writing style. You said not one biblical inerrantist believes Mt. 5:38-48.
   I’m an inerrantist.
   I believe those words.
   Now what? – Regards…

   O, my dear friends in newspaper land, I have other things to talk about, but I am drawn back to this subject.
   I appreciate my gracious reader for sticking with me through the years. But I must say right out that you cannot—CANNOT—be a biblical inerrantist and believe Mt. 5:38-48 or Lk 6:27-36 or even the Parable of the Prodigal.
   The God Jesus shows us would not order the slaying of the Amalekites or even get mad, repent a mistake, and drown all creation in a flood.
   Yes, even Jesus used that last story in a parabolic way. He knew it would preach. But that is not the God he preached.
   Jesus tells us that “an eye for an eye” is not God’s reality. There is no retribution in God.
   No retaliation. No getting even.
   We must love our enemies as God loves his.
   Jesus tells us God is “kind to the ungrateful and to the wicked.”
   (Oh!!!, if I had a mere dollar for every time I have quoted that verse, I’m a rich man!)
   Jesus makes it clear. God does not punish his enemies! God takes the punishment upon himself!
   God suffers for our sins. We are all forgiven.
   Now. As we are.

   Seekers looking at the church today might think Christians are crazy.
And with good reason.
   Look at this: The Southern Baptists are set to vote on banning women from
ministry. They already ban women, but some feel they are not banned enough.
   Catholics, too, just want men as priests, but they specify single men.
   Baptists don’t generally like single pastors. They want them married.
   Baptists, Catholics, and the folks that left the UMC ban gay people, male or female, from being pastors.
   One Baptist leader said, “We must believe what the Bible says and put that into practice.”
   They must all have different Bibles!
   It does look a bit crazy.
   What if God fails to follow the rules? What if God just goes plum off the rails and calls a woman or a gay person to ministry?
   What then?
   I once had a profound experience while I was serving Communion. It was, I must tell you, a very Catholic experience.
   I shared it with a priest at the University of Dallas. He studied it carefully and noted that I am Methodist.
   “No,” he said, “You can’t have an experience like that. You are not a Catholic.”
   Guess God thought I was. Or, more likely, God doesn’t give a tinker’s dam. (Not a curse.)
   God calls whom God will. God calls straight people, gay people, men, women, single folks, and married with children.
   Ignorant and narrow-minded Christians need to get out of the way and let God work.
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   Thanks for the gifts!
   And hey! Remember the Gospel concert at 6:00 on Sat. June 24. Great singers.
   And me, too.

Spectacular Music

We built our service last week around the glorious music from the quartet—Blake, Shannon, Andrew and Michaella Moore. Just think—we’ve got Blake and Courtney every Sunday!

Father’s Day

That’s this Sunday.
My dad, Bill Brennan, died at 62 in 1974. (My mom lived another 28 years longer.) I’m always glad to remember my parents—and I’m sure you are, too.
Mary will be preaching.
She gave one of her finest sermons on Mother’s Day. (But they are always good.)

Saturday, June 24 Gospel Nite
6:00 p.m.—light supper after

Yes, it’s a fundraiser. But it is primarily a celebration of God’s grace expressed in music.
This is a return of a St. Matthew tradition. Jerri Brauer is no longer here to bring her pot of red beans. Concert folks—many from beyond the church— called her “the Bean Woman.” We may need another Bean Woman.
The supper after is pot luck.
Anticipate the fellowship.
Love to all of you—especially those who have illness in the family. (I know some of you have.)
See you Sunday.
God Bless—MB

Catching Up

We will get a break on our roofing bill. Our own Bill
Wheeler has roofers. Praises be!

Catching Up

We will get a break on our roofing bill. Our own Bill
Wheeler has roofers. Praises be!

Just finished the Annual Conference of the Central Texas Conference of the UMC.
   This is where churches leaving the UMC over gay ordination and marriage made it official.
   They are gone. About half of the Central Texas churches withdrew. A lot of them are smaller country churches, but also some larger city churches and one mega-church.
   What does this show us?
   That the sin of prejudice is hard to overcome.
   Anti-gay prejudice is no different from racial prejudice. Those who make life miserable for gay people now are the spiritual heirs of those who demeaned people of color when I was growing up.
   And it speaks of a failure of ministry. Our theology schools have turned out some preachers who do not know the Gospel.
   These ministers have failed to call people to Jesus Christ.
   They have allowed idolatry—the worship of the Bible over the Lord.
   Yes, I know, it takes some guts to tell people that Paul was wrong about same-sex relations.
   He was wrong about women keeping silent.
He was wrong about slavery.
   I love Paul. I give thanks for him. But he is not the Lord and Savior of the world.
   Jesus is.
   And Jesus taught us to love people as they are.
   God doesn’t care if people are gay or trans. But God does care if we are cruel to the neighbor.
+++
   As soon as I get the world straightened out I can talk about happy stuff.
   I’ll do it anyway. We’ve got a Gospel concert on Sat., June 24 at 6:00—light supper after. Our great musicians and I will be singing. Mark the calendar.

WOW!

Blake has a couple of guests coming Sunday who will join in the singing. There will be three—count them—three! Special musical performances involving Blake, Shannon
and the couple.

   Sermon: More than Kin
   Scripture: Acts 17:22-28
   Expect a great time of worship.

Catching Up

We have some large repair bills (plumbing and roof–$26,000) and we have had to hire people to do things that we once had volunteers for. We are going to be working to catch up financially.
And I want you to be confident that we will do so.
   Mary and I and the Administrative Board will be watching spending very carefully. We are going to spend only what is essential for the rest of this year. We will not buy even a box of paper clips for the church to pay for. Someone in the church will have to pay for the paper clips.
   If we need $150 worth of chicken for a church dinner, we will need to charge a little for the dinner to cover the price of the chicken.
   And we will have fundraising events—such as our concerts. (These are also for the joy of it; they will be good for the church.)
   I will be reporting the weekly offerings in this space. We need $5,000 each Sunday to get us to where we need to be.
   Last Sunday, we received $5,911.
   That gives us $911 to help on a Sunday when we fall short. Br encouraged. The Lord is with us all the way.

Now About That Concert

Saturday, June 24, 6:00 p.m.—followed by a light supper. What a joy to resume our concerts! We will share some of our best times at these events.
   See you Sunday. (Yes! Please! Be here if you can.)

Greetings, Sir.
You are wrong. Yes, God is love, but
his heart was not overflowing with love
when he destroyed the world with a flood.
He was angry. God shows wrath toward
any who oppose him. They will not see his
loving side. Respectfully,

   Apologies to the writer for using her e-mail. I’m sure she’s a fine person
  And apologies to all for staying on this subject.
  But biblical inerrancy is the chief illness of the church.
  It allows people to think that God has a “loving side” and a mean side. (A two-faced God.)
  It allows us followers of Christ to be loving when it suits us and mean as Old Billy when we want to be.
  And biblical inerrancy is what makes Christians so often vulnerable to the lies of truly evil politicians.
  It undermines morality and judgment.
  I know, with some of you, I’m wasting my breath in saying all of this.
  But God can’t be both loving and wrathful. God can’t love his enemies and also destroy them.
  God can’t, through Jesus, condemn retaliation, and then retaliate.
  Jesus tells us to love even those who do not love us. He says loving like that makes us perfect, like God. (Mt. 5:38-48)
  Read that scripture I just noted—ten verses.
  There is not even one biblical inerrantist in the whole wide world who believes those verses.
  If I shout this real loud, can everyone hear me?
  GOD—IS—LOVE!!!
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St. Matthew lives on the gifts of those who love this church. We preach a God who loves us as we are. Not everyone does. If you want to help, go to our website and click on “give.” Or mail a gift. Or—radical idea—bring it with you Sunday at 11:00.

Oops!

One thing I look forward to every week is whatever Blake (or Blake and Shannon) may do. But I was really tired Sunday—and something got lost.

I got home Sunday afternoon and lay back in my recliner. It seemed strange to me that I could not remember

Blake’s solo. Was I so sleepy I missed it. No! I was so tired I left it out! Went right from the prayer to the offering. So, we missed a blessing. But Blake is already prepared for
this Sunday.

Saturday Nite Gospel

A monthly Saturday Gospel Nite was once a big part of St. Matthew life. It was a door to the church for some people. They came to the concerts before they came to a worship service.

These begin again this month—on June 24. Leading it will be me, Mary, Blake, Shannon and Kristi. (Not everyone will be involved every time.) And we will have guest performers occasionally.

No one in the above gang but me knows what these concerts look like—feel like—but everyone will know after the first one.

There is a light supper afterwards—a good time of fellowship. We all bring the food. We eat what comes in.

Most of the music will be Gospel, but Shannon will soon do a whole evening of Frank Sinatra. And we will have a Broadway night. We used to fill the house for our Christmas concert in December. It was a big deal. We had our Christmas dinner after the concert and Santa came for the kids. (Expect this again—on Dec. 12.)

These will not be live-streamed. (We use some rec orded music we can’t get permission for.) You will have to come in person.

Great singing. Great time. Be looking forward to our first one. Saturday, June 24—6:00p.m. (Get home before dark.)

See you Sunday.
Yes—first Sunday. We gather at the Table.