Brown Memorial Park Avenue Presbyterian Church

Peter writes to churches in Asia Minor – modern day Turkey – to encourage them in what seems like a hostile social situation. These communities were comprised by resident aliens who had traveled from their homeland through a vast Greco-Roman network of roads in search of economic opportunity. There were Diaspora Jews who had come … Continue reading Taking the Long View

It is a fun twist of fate that I was briefly on staff at the church where David and Deborah Malone worshipped in Boston, Massachussetts. David served as pastor here at Brown Memorial in the late 1980s, during a critical period when the congregation’s survival was very much in question. And it seems an agreed … Continue reading Call & Response

Here comes Jesus from the east looking a lot like the king predicted by the prophet Zechariah. “He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war-horse from Jerusalem,” the prophet predicted, “and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations.” With promises like that, it’s no wonder … Continue reading Here Comes Jesus

It gives me no pleasure to tell you this, but it is a historical fact. Once upon a time, at the tender age of eighteen years old, I joined a fraternity. Sigma Phi Epsilon, to be specific. I could still give you the secret handshake, fifteen years later – but I won’t, because it’s, you … Continue reading Lazarus, Come Out!

“It happened one too many times,” Katherine Schneider begins in her blog written nearly 14 years ago. “My seeing eye dog and I went to church and heard another totally uninspiring homily about John 9, the story of the man born blind. It contained the usual elements: ‘I knew a blind person who was … Continue reading Jesus: The Unauthorized Version

I failed as an atheist which is hard to do since there are so many more arguments for being an atheist than the opposite. There’s the church’s entanglements with empire – embracing so much of what Jesus rejected. The church’s preference for the absence of tension more than its hunger for the presence of justice. … Continue reading For God So Loves

“He had to go through Samaria.” Actually he didn’t. True, it was the most direct route, but not the route that a lot of Jews took. Saying he had to go through Samaria is like saying that someone traveling from Washington, DC to Philadelphia had to go through Baltimore. Usually, they just take the beltway. … Continue reading Getting Real with Jesus

This past spring, Perry and I got to visit the deserts of Palestine. Not only did we take a shiny tourist bus through the security checkpoints, crossing the boundaries from Israel to Palestine, from Jerusalem into Bethlehem, but we also left our group on foot and walked a few blocks away from the Church of … Continue reading Desert Wisdom

Preaching and teaching have been a lot easier in 2017 than any year I can remember.   Most years when I teach adults about Calvin’s doctrine of total depravity – that sin is so deep humans can’t escape it, I get a lot of pushback. This year the Adult Confirmation Class was like, “clearly!” Most years … Continue reading A Glimpse of Glory

The summer air was so thick with humidity and tension that each breath I took felt like equal parts water, air, and racial rancor. The first two were no problem to me; I was a lifeguard, trained to save swimmers from drowning. It was early summer 2015, just a few weeks after our city … Continue reading Nick Forward’s Youth Sunday Sermon