All Posts By

Steve Mathonnet-VanderWell

Essay

Crazy Eights

Anticipation has been growing. The excitement is almost palpable. Yes, it is true. Back despite absolutely no popular demand, for the fourth time, here is my most recent collection of profundities, oddities, trivialities, and observations. This year, eight of them.…
Second Reformed Church, Pella, IA
Essay

My Bus Ride

This summer we’ve been preaching on food, meals, and banquets in the Bible. What comes to your mind? What stories and passages would you include? I was given Luke 14:7-11. Here Jesus gives some advice: how-to-behave at dinner parties. Don’t…
Second Reformed Church, Pella, IA
Essay

The Incarnation Principle

“Hey, could you help me put together some key verses about women in leadership in the church, and maybe too, how to answer some of ‘their' verses? A complementarian guy I know wants to debate.” Wow! My mind spun trying…
Second Reformed Church, Pella, IA
Essay

Zacchaeus and the Church Elves

If you’re of a certain age, (or possibly any age?) you can’t hear the story of Zacchaeus without breaking into song. Zacchaeus was a wee little man… I think I know the story well. I’ve known it since childhood. I’ve…
Second Reformed Church, Pella, IA
Essay

Waltzing with the Trinity

Yesterday was Pentecost, meaning that this coming Sunday is known as Trinity Sunday. I used to make fun of Trinity Sunday. Exactly what event are we celebrating? “Of course, that's the day we read our favorite Trinity story!” We all…
Second Reformed Church, Pella, IA
Essay

Is No Thing Sacred?

The adult discussion group at church was talking about “Faith and Creation Care.” As expected, the creation stories of Genesis and some of the robust creation psalms (8, 65, 104, 148) were in the mix. Edith, a spry woman in…
Second Reformed Church, Pella, IA
Essay

Happy Birthday to Dort

In an odd, little corner of the world that I sometimes inhabit, people are celebrating the four-hundredth anniversary of the close of the Synod of Dort. I don’t believe they’re celebrating that it finally ended. Actually, I’m late to the…
Second Reformed Church, Pella, IA
Essay

Resurrection and Our Past

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is so mighty, so deep, so all-encompassing, it invites us to go into our pasts, and to wonder and to grieve, to reframe, to sort and to polish, to let go and to reclaim, to…
Second Reformed Church, Pella, IA
Essay

Heresies I Have Loved: II

beliefs and doctrines that are just beyond the pale. Nonetheless, they are attractive. They make sense in their own way. They are very close to the Gospel. Maybe that’s what makes them winsome. Maybe that’s what makes them dangerous.
Second Reformed Church, Pella, IA