There are times when belief in God truly is challenging. I’m talking about believing in a good, gracious, and righteous God when you’ve been mysteriously bleeding for twelve years, believing after you little girl is dead, believing after seeing neighbors rounded up for being Jewish or socialist or gypsy or …
Swamped. That’s how Mark describes the boat. Most of us have been there. Maybe we’re there, now. Trying to have my kid every place they need to be, trying to plan the family schedule and family budget, trying to keep up with work, trying to keep up with health care, …
We Lutherans, we’re the grace people. It’s a basic Christian doctrine that we cannot make ourselves right with God or save ourselves, and whenever someone says we can, we Lutherans rush to be at the front of the line to say, those things are gifts from God. We’re willing to …
Jesus has been busy. After getting baptized and tempted he called disciples, he cast out demons, healed the sick, cleansed lepers, forgave sins, dined with sinners, and there was last week’s challenge to the Pharisees. He has been dis-organizing life. He has been knocking down the rules by which his …
Silence binds these scenes together. Silence explains them. Silence condemns the silent. Silence demands to be filled. The silence of which I speak is not the blessed, healthy quiet that comes when we mute the voices that would increase our anxiety and consume our attention. The silence of which I …
Roughly 736 years before the birth of Jesus, an official court prophet in Jerusalem named Isaiah went into the Temple. I was an anxious time for Judah, the kingdom in which he lived. The King of Assyria had declared himself king of the world and set out to make sure …
Luke describes her as the sound of a violent wind. Paul says she intercedes for us where words fail. John depicts her as an advocate, or lawyer. I call her a ‘her,’ Luther called her a ‘he,’ and the Greek is neuter. Who is the Holy Spirit? For that matter, …
Jesus has been talking for a while. He does that in John’s Gospel. On Maundy Thursday Jesus commanded his disciples to love one another, and then washed their feet. It’s been seven weeks and he is still explaining it. He’s praying, now, but his disciples hear it, and it is …
“About whom does the prophet Isaiah write, himself or someone else?” It’s the most important question in the world for this man Philip meets. Luke tells us much about him. He is an “Ethiopian,” which in the Bible refers to the upper Nile in present day Sudan. So, he is …
“He is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders; it has become the cornerstone.” –Peter’s testimony to the priests, the same ones who had Jesus killed. It’s a continuation of the story we read last week. The leaders killed Jesus, God raised him, said, “Hey, guys. Funny story: …