Rev. Don Erickson

One of my job duties, one that doesn’t get seen by folks, is to be aware of the sociological trends when it comes to the church in our society. In other words, I often ask myself and seek to answer these questions: what is happening in American religious culture and how does what happening effect us as a local body? Local churches don’t exist in a vacuum. I get asked what can we do to make the church grow? Often, the pastor is expected to have some answers in this regard. But sadly, there are no easy answers. No magical remedy in our day and age. Some churches do a lot right and do not grow numerically. Others don’t try all that hard and grow. There are examples of both. As much as church consultants make a living helping churches to grow, no failsafe, secret recipe for church growth has been found. In fact, studies tell us that church consultants may boost growth a bit initially, long term not so much. The reason this is so seems clear to me – the cultural shift we are now experiencin...

You know the story. God sees His creation and that it’s a disaster. Genesis 6 begins with human beings being beyond dastardly. Verse 5: “the people on earth were very wicked… all the imaginings of their hearts were always of evil only.”  Its not just humans that are so dastardly, though. The whole earth is and all living beings are, according to verses 11 and 12: “The earth was corrupt before God, the earth was filled with violence. God saw the earth, and, yes, it was corrupt; for all living beings had corrupted their ways on the earth.”  As if to reiterate the dark reality, God communicates to Noah what his divine eyes sees: “The end of all living beings has come before me, for because of them the earth is filled with violence.” Violence is mentioned twice in chapter 6. Cain tapped into a kind of black hole for earthly existence. Cain’s violence begat more violence. No surprise. That’s what violence does. To use lingo from Star Wars again, Cain’s act, his full and comp...

  PRELUDE            The Gift of Love/Eternal Father               arr. John Carter   *WORSHIP COVENANT O God, we covenant to worship you with our true selves, selves created in your divine image and for relationship with you. We place before you our vulnerabilities and humanness. Encompass us with the light of your Grace. We look to your perfect Love, O Beautiful God. Fill our emptiness with your Love as we lift our hearts to you in word, in song, and in truth. Show us your wisdom and compassion. Amen.   SELAH          ( a moment to pause & rest in God’s love, letting go of all that  holds us back to full connection with God )   *HYMN                   Come, Teach Us, Spirit of Our God    NCH #287   SCRIPTURE READINGS ...

I know up to now, these meditations have been lengthy. The first few chapters of Genesis are so crucial, that it could not be otherwise. Genesis 1-3’s importance called for a significant focus, and that’s what I offered. But this week, I’m thinking it won’t be as lengthy. We turn to the short, condense and packed story of Cain and Abel. Abel is a shepherd. Cain is a farmer. And Adonai is one who receives offerings. That Adonai – deemed Adonai in the text – is a deity to which offerings are given, this is not novel. However, in the biblical story as a whole, it comes early. We haven’t gotten to Abraham yet! No covenant has been established between God and people yet. But here is a kind of proto-covenant being established. Humans out of devotion to Adonai provide an offering of gratitude to “him.” Another thing we ought to note is that we are way before Torah, or any kind of divine mandates when it comes to the make up of an offering to Adonai. There are no rules and regulations proclaim...

This story is so renowned that I do not need to go into details. The man and woman - Eve is not named yet - live in peace and serenity at one with God in the Garden of Eden. They are naked before God and feel no shame about it. God has given one command – not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, we might call it the Good and Evil Known Tree. The Tree of Life – the Life Tree – on the other hand, is free for their taking. A serpent enters the Garden of Eden. He talks to the woman. The man is with her and clearly hears what’s happening.   The serpent tempts them to ignore God and eat fruit from the Good and Evil Known Tree. She eats that bitter fruit first, then hands it to Adam who eats it as well. Upon eating that fruit, their eyes are opened and they immediately realize they are naked and immediately feel ashamed. God curses them man and woman with labor, with pain, with division in relationships, etc. God also curses the ground, making it hard to farm. The last and mo...

For a while now, there's been a division between science’s explanation of the universe’s beginnings and the Christian explanation. It's been Big Bang vs. Genesis, with scientists claiming a blowout victory. Along the way to that victory, religion often has been ridiculed as myth and superstition. I'm not here to prove scientists wrong. I love science and scientists, after all. But I’d like to suggest that Genesis 1 is not ridiculous or completely insignificant. Genesis 1, in fact, gives a profound, albeit poetic, description of the universe’s beginnings. And that's what I want to look at a bit today, at the Bible's profound, poetic description of the universe's beginnings. According to the Big Bang theory, there are five essential variables in the beginning. In layman's terms, these five variables are 1.) infinite space; 2.) a singularity, a kind of super-subatomic seed that somehow contains all the “stuff of the universe”; 3.) a super dense and hot fl...