Category Archives: Church of God

Judge Not?  Judge Better.

Posted on August 9, 2026 by nathanalbright

[Note:  This is the prepared text for a sermonette given to the Portland, Oregon congregation of the United Church of God on Sabbath, August 8, 2026.] Almost everyone who has spent time around the Bible has run into it. You … Continue reading →

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The Difference Between Dead and Asleep

Posted on August 2, 2026 by nathanalbright

[Note:  This is the prepared text for a sermon given to the United Church of God in The Dalles, Oregon on Sabbath, August 1, 2026.] Introduction: A Week Among the Dying and the Dead I have spent most of this … Continue reading →

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The Scarcity Tax on Participation: How First-Come Registration Suppresses Volunteering, and What Centralized Systems Can Do About It: A white paper on registration design for volunteer-dependent gatherings

Posted on July 17, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract When attendance at a gathering is rationed by limited space and allotted first-come, first-served, registrants rationally optimize for speed. Speed, however, is purchased by shedding every decision not strictly required to secure a place — and volunteering is nearly … Continue reading →

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Ecclesiology: Remembering the Fellowship’s Origins

Posted on July 10, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract. The general theory holds that a body’s stored founding fixes its verdict on reform before any reform is named. This paper applies the theory to the case nearest at hand and least available for disinterested handling: the fellowship, which … Continue reading →

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The Restitution of All Things as the Forward Furnishing of Memory

Posted on July 9, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract The foregoing papers established that remembrance is a covenantal duty (Paper 1), set out the machinery by which the covenant equips its people to keep it (Papers 2–3), named the two ways the duty is broken (Paper 4), and … Continue reading →

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The Preacher’s Double Correction Regarding Memory in Ecclesiastes

Posted on July 9, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract The preceding paper named the two ways the duty of remembrance is broken—forgetting and false nostalgia—and fixed the fleshpots of Egypt as the cluster’s paradigm of the laundered past. This paper turns from the failures to the correction, reading … Continue reading →

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The Two Failures of Memory That Scripture Names

Posted on July 9, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract The foregoing papers established that remembrance is a covenantal duty (Paper 1) and set out the machinery by which the covenant equips its people to keep it (Papers 2–3). This paper turns from the duty and its means to … Continue reading →

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The Material Witnesses

Posted on July 9, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract The preceding paper argued that the appointed times keep a people’s memory whole by fixing the deliverance in a recurring rite rather than leaving it to private recollection. This paper takes up the second of the covenant’s memorial provisions: … Continue reading →

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The Appointed Times as the Memorial Engine

Posted on July 9, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract If remembrance is a covenantal duty owed by a whole people across generations, as the preceding paper argued, then the covenant must supply means proportioned to the duty—means that stand outside the individual heart and outreach the individual lifetime. … Continue reading →

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The Shrewd Steward and the Two Masters: A Sermonette on Luke 16:1-15

Posted on July 5, 2026 by nathanalbright

[Note:  This is the prepared text for a sermonette given to the Portland, Oregon congregation of the United Church of God on Sabbath, July 4, 2026. Good morning brethren.  Today in my sermonette I would like to focus on a … Continue reading →

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