Richard L. Floyd

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Cross? The Bloodless Theology of the Mainline Church

rfloyd@berkshire.rr.com — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 23:12:00 GMT

If you were to worship in an American conservative evangelical church that hasn’t yet sold its soul to the prosperity Gospel, there is a good chance you may soon hear a sermon about the cross. Not so in many Mainline churches. I have been wondering why this is, given the cross' important place in the New Testament, especially in Paul’s writings, of which the Epistle Lesson appointed for tomorrow, 2 Corinthians 5:16-2, is a prime example.

Is God's Love Fair? Thoughts on The Story of the Prodigal Son

rfloyd@berkshire.rr.com — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:52:00 GMT

We all come before God with empty hands, with nothing to show but our sins, and still God the heavenly Father, like the earthly father in the parable, has been waiting and watching for us all along. Is such love fair?

God's Ways are not our Ways: Psalm 55: 8-9

rfloyd@berkshire.rr.com — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 14:12:00 GMT

The Psalm appointed for this Sunday (tomorrow, actually) is Psalm 55, one of my (many) favorites. For those of us who have earned our bread as theologians and ministers of the church, and who sometimes assume an unhealthy knowledge and familiarity with the ways of God, there is a word here we need to hear again and again:

Pastors aren't Prophets: Some Unsolicited Advice to Newly-Minted Ministers

rfloyd@berkshire.rr.com — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:22:00 GMT

Too many of our new pastors in the mainline church leave the ministry after a few years. There are many reasons why this happens, but for whatever reason, it is not good.

“A Hundred Lesser Duties:” The Marginalization of Preaching

rfloyd@berkshire.rr.com — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 14:21:00 GMT

The great British theologian P.T. Forsyth often complained that the church was guilty of the “sin of bustle,” by running errands for the culture at the expense of its own unique vocation. Perhaps preachers are the guiltiest of them all when it comes to this, as they stop attending to their high calling of preaching. Here's Richard Lischer's cogent take on what too often happens to preaching today:

A Hymn for Lent

rfloyd@berkshire.rr.com — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 15:23:00 GMT

You Won't Despise a Broken Heart

“They sought him by a star:” A Hymn for Epiphany

rfloyd@berkshire.rr.com — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:21:00 GMT

A hymn for epiphany

A Hymn for Christmas

rfloyd@berkshire.rr.com — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:30:00 GMT

“The Miracle of Christmas”

“Advents:” A Hymn for Advent

rfloyd@berkshire.rr.com — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:40:00 GMT

I wrote this Advent hymn for my local church in the Advent following the 9/11 attacks.

Prayer for a Retired Pastor

rfloyd@berkshire.rr.com — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:44:00 GMT

In the several months since I started my personal blog, “Retired Pastor Ruminates,” which can be found at: http://richardlfloyd.blogspot.com/ I have had quite a number of visits from people doing a Google search for “Retired Pastor.” Many of them are looking for things to say at a retirement for their pastor, a farewell sermon or a prayer. Instead they have found things like long treatises on eschatology, rants about the Red Sox, and borscht recipes.

Never being one to want to disappoint I decided to write a prayer for a retired pastor. I may be retired, but I can still write a prayer. So here it is. I started out writing a rather generic one with (name) and (his/her), but it came out eerily disembodied. So I fell back on an ancient practice, and called my retiring pastor Theophilus, the addressee of Luke's Gospel and the Book of Acts, a name that translates from the Greek roughly as “friend of God,” or “beloved of God.” Since I never knew Theophilus I just wrote the kind of things that