11.13.2020 – When SNL Preaches Forgiveness

Saturday Night Live has been around 45 years. I’ve never watched it. Until four months ago, I had a Sunday morning job that got me up too early to even think about watching SNL.  SNL’s trademark comedy is built around current events and cultural issues.  The comedy is often scathing and sometimes controversial. Those who watch it regularly say it’s a hit or miss thing, with more misses than hits of late.  It’s the controversy that often lands Saturday Night Live in the Sunday morning news, and that’s where I’ve gotten to know SNL.  From the news.

Saturday Night Live was in the news this past Sunday for the monologue that opened Saturday’s show.  Comedian Dave Chapelle had been asked to do the monologue that Saturday after the election, just as he had four years ago.  Unlike four years ago, Saturday’s studio audience was in a celebratory mood, as was the comedian.

Sunday’s headlines said Chappelle was brilliant and cynical. Others accused him of poor taste and doing more harm than good. Continue reading →

11.06.2020 – The Amazing Thing About Common Grace


We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
The Nicene Creed

The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. (ESV) Luke 16:22–23

To be sure, the Gospel concerns itself with eternity among other things.  It tells the truth about life being something not limited to what we live in this vale of flesh.  We look forward to the life of the word to come, we say in the creed. But Scripture also makes it clear that the life to come is decidedly more pleasant for some than for others.  As in the story of Poor Man Lazarus, some will spend eternity at the side of Father Abraham , while for others, like the rich man, the world to come will be a place of torment.

The elect and the reprobate. The saved and the lost. Those who receive salvation by grace – God’s unmerited favor – through faith, and those who receive the punishment due us all. The modern mind is often at a loss when it comes to life in the world to come, but even when it accepts the proposition, it prefers to see all humanity as part of the “some” like Poor Man Lazarus or to simply cancel the idea of eternal torment. Reprobation does not exist but as a temporary state while things work themselves out to a happy ending. Continue reading →

10.30.2020 – To insource or to outsource. That is the question.

Some of you, well one of you, asked about the new lawn.  I mentioned it and the lessons it was teaching me a few weeks ago.  So, how’s the new lawn? It seems to be coming along.  Nice and green. Thicker in some spots than in others, but it’s coming along.  Cooler weather and the soon to be winter means I won’t be doing much with the new lawn for a while.  But when spring comes, I have some decisions to make.  Will I tend to it myself? Maybe I should; after all, the first job given to our first father was working and keeping the garden (Genesis 2:15).  Or will I outsource the mowing and the trimming?  I mean, assuming the end to a pandemic, we’d like to travel and I’m not sure neighbor kids mow lawns when you’re away anymore. Plus, lawn care was included in our HOA fees in Pennsylvania so we’d have to buy a new mower and trimmer.  And, yeah, I’m not getting any younger.

To outsource or insource, that is the question. Continue reading →

10.23.2020 – Man on the Lam: Jesus Saves Suckers

It’s been a month now, and I’m not in jail.  You can hear the message by clicking on the video link above (really, it’s worth a listen), or I can tell you what it said:

Attention! This call is from the legal department of the Social Security Administration. Your Social Security number has been suspended, and we have filed a case under your name. So, before this matter goes to federal claims courthouse for you to get arrested, kindly press 1, because FBI also involved in your case.  So, I repeat, press 1 to know about your legal case.

I did not press 1, but I find myself checking the rearview mirror for unmarked Crown Victorias following too closely or men in black with earpieces and talking into their wrists. Maybe the federal claims courthouse has a backlog of cases or is processing the cases of those who pressed 1.  In any event, I remain a free person.

The call came from the Solomon Islands, phone number 677-75.  Maybe I should have wondered why the legal department of the Social Security Administration calls from the Solomon Islands.  I Googled “federal claims courthouse,” and the closest I could find is the United States Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C., but there is nothing on their website about suspended Social Security numbers.

I don’t want to let my guard down, but the call may have been spam.  I might not have avoided jail by pressing 1. Continue reading →

10.16.2020 – When the Nays Have It

I have moderated my fair share of meetings, session meetings and presbytery meetings in church polity speak.  There’s something satisfying about coming to the end of debate, hopefully friendly conversation, and to the vote.  “All those in favor say, ‘Aye.’” Then, “Opposed, ‘Nay.’”  Usually, not always, I would pronounce, “The ayes have it. Motion carries.”  It’s how we do things, and it mostly works.

It seems, though, that we are more and more living in a world where the nays have it, and it isn’t working well.

There’s a good chance that no matter which presidential candidate garners the most votes, popular or electoral, on November 3, the nays will have it.  Pew Research has probed our voters’ minds and we seem to be more against than for.  Should former Vice President Biden win the election, a vote against President Trump will have propelled him to the White House, and, barring an unexpected landslide, should President Trump be re-elected, his margin of victory will come from those voting against Joe Biden.

It looks like the nays are going to have it. Continue reading →