If you want to know what a church or pastor believes, go to one of their funerals.  What’s at the heart and center of a pastor’s teaching?  He’ll reveal it during a funeral sermon.  Here’s why: A funeral sermon is the most-serious sermon a pastor will ever preach.  And so, that’s when you find out […]

It’s lonely being a Lutheran.  Of this, one of the last, true 20th-century Lutheran theologians in Germany, Hermann Sasse, wrote: As Luther once went the lonely way between Rome and Spiritualism, so the Lutheran Church today stands alone between the world powers of Roman Catholicism on the one hand and modern Protestantism on the other. […]

If we were to view human history in broad, sweeping strokes, we would find a long-simmering war between the religion of mother earth and the religion of Father God.  And what is this religion of mother earth?  It’s putting your trust (which is, faith) in some part of creation instead of God, the Creator. Long […]

Today, we no longer know what true feasting entails.  For few of us ever go hungry and, for many of us, we overeat more than we should.  We see such excess in others, even ourselves.  Our tight pants and honest looks in the mirror testify to this truth and betray our sinful gluttony.  Some from […]

While we were preoccupied with other events of life, the Lord of the universe came down the backstairs.  That happened 2,000 years ago when Jesus was born.  Like coming down the backstairs, Jesus’ birth was, at first, a little-known event in the little town of Bethlehem. Joseph’s extended family didn’t even know of that event, […]

The high and mighty of this world see no need for angels.  After all, they have the money to hire their own protection.  They can rely on their own, and what they can buy, to save and protect them.  Why rely on what you aren’t sure of or what you can’t see or confirm?  Walking […]

“Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?”  Jesus asked a simple question in a simple, straightforward way.  Jesus wasn’t using tricky language or imagery.  “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?”  Was it “yes” or was it “no”? The Pharisees, to whom Jesus directed this question, wouldn’t even answer.  […]

The local, evening news tells us of two shootings in a large city.  We listen with half an ear to the first report.  It involves a street corner, a drug deal gone badly, a gun, and a dead body.  Later, another reporter tells us about a mother in her kitchen, her daughters at the table […]

Niles could be a demanding man.  This is no surprise to those who knew him.  Donna knew and lived it since she married Niles in 2007.  Yet, Donna also saw a softer and gentler side of Niles that many of you may have not seen.  I even had a chance to experience such from Niles, […]

If the first man, Adam, brought sin, chaos, and death into the world and passed it on to all his descendants, then why isn’t the world in complete chaos all the time?  Why are their respites of grace, where people show kindness, where deer calmly drink water from the brook, and where cats and dogs […]