Matthew R. Green's Blog, page 101
February 20, 2015
A Collect for the Third Day of Lent
“Remember that you are dust…” Almighty God,��who didst form us from simple��clay,��grant that we should recognize those��places where we believe ourselves to be greater than we truly are and that we might��learn the humility to respect our limitations and needs, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, […]
February 19, 2015
A Collect for the Second Day of Lent
“Remember that you are dust…” Almighty God, who didst breathe life into the dust of the��ground, cause��us to remember that we are but��earth and soil, and that we live each moment��only by��thy gracious gift of breath and spirit, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever.��Amen.
February 18, 2015
A Collect for Ash Wednesday
Patient Lord, who dwelt 40 days in the wilderness to prepare for thy work, grant that we would grow to trust the slow, gradual work that thou dost continue to do in us and the need to work consistently and slowly toward becoming like thee, who livest and reignest with the Father and Holy Spirit, […]
December 2, 2014
Just Some Advent Ramblings
I’m kind of terrible about the Christian calendar. I just don’t connect with seasons, I suppose. Maybe I just get into such a routine that one day doesn’t feel any different than another just because a calendar tells me I’m in a new season. But I’ve been thinking about Advent a bit more than usual this year. I’m […]
November 25, 2014
When Your Shield is Turned Backward
A bunch of us were sitting around chatting a while ago, and I noticed a curious trend. We were talking about some hard things. They were potentially personal things, too, but apparently they didn’t have to be. This one guy would often make a comment about a biblical or theological point, not in a highfalutin or overly […]
November 18, 2014
On the Other Hand…
In the last two posts, I griped about a hymn. I figure it’s only fair to praise one lest I focus only on the negative. William Boyd Carpenter only wrote two hymns so far as we know, but I really appreciate one of them. As we sang it in church the other day, I thought, “This is […]
November 11, 2014
Because Everything Looks Like a Nail
So last week, I griped about a hymn with some mediocre theology. This week, I’ll gripe about the same hymn with different (but related) mediocre theology. Return, O holy Dove, return, Sweet messenger of rest! I hate the sins that made Thee mourn And drove Thee from my breast. Another verse of Cowper’s hymn is about how sorry […]
November 4, 2014
Dim Flames
Granted, many people will disagree with me on this point, but I tend to prefer hymns over praise choruses. There are some good choruses out there, but I find that most tend to be pretty thin and repetitive, and some even have pretty mediocre theology. That’s not to say that all hymns have stellar theology either. […]
October 28, 2014
Space: The Final (Spiritual) Frontier
A few years back, a young pastor gave a talk at the weekly chapel for the high school I was teaching at. He excitedly explained that if these teenagers could just master this skill, their whole spiritual lives would be transformed. They just needed to be able to sit silently, waiting for God. After talking […]
October 21, 2014
Tribalism: A Most Subtle Evil
The other day, I was in a professional development seminar where one of the exercises split the audience into two groups, each taking a side on an issue. Most of us could see that the issues were hardly as simple to divide as it was presented, but we had to make a choice. Once we […]
