As I begin my eighth year of ministry at First Lutheran Church (FLC), I realize the need to plan for a sabbatical in the year of 2011. It is time for renewal for the congregation and myself. Read the rest of this entry »

The readings this week will focus our attention on pride and humility. Jesus will rebuff us in the very areas which we often take our greatest pride: Our families and our ability to control and predict nature.

Jeremiah’s message will revolve around the pride which seems to afflict every age: The idea that of us choosing which message to hear and obey, as if Read the rest of this entry »

The initial Sundays after Pentecost draw our attention to the very basics of our faith. Last Sunday’s readings focused us on the person of Christ and his power over death. Only God has that sort of power because God is not subject to death. But when the Lord of Life spoke, death also had to obey and render up its captives. God did it in the Old Testament and in the New, but in the New he bore the name Jesus. Read the rest of this entry »

For many years the Trinity was an obscure field of study which only strange academic sorts actually cared about. All this has changed in the recent decades. There has been a revival of interest in the doctrine of the Trinity and its history. What was once an arcane theological subject, has for a variety of reasons come to be a “hot” topic. Some of them are seeking rationalistic explanations and are well on their way Read the rest of this entry »

We have come to this really strange time in the Church year. It is sort of the Advent/Lent of Pentecost. Jesus has ascended; his disciples are left gaping as they stare into the sky, hoping to catch one last glimpse of him. The Spirit has not yet been poured out, at least we would remember that day when that had not yet happened, Read the rest of this entry »

In  Acts 16:9-15 we read about another example of “The Kingdom Comes.” The Christian today might be tempted to look about  and think that the Christian movement has run its course. But the Christian movement has always been empowered by the Spirit of God and built on the simple changes that God continues to make in lives like Lydia, the seller of purple cloth, who was given the gift of generosity.   Read the rest of this entry »

The 23rd Psalm is the most well-known psalm, in which the writer sees himself as being led through life to his ultimate resting place. He is taken by the Lord – who is the shepherd – to green pastures and still water, but he’s also led through dark valleys. Read the rest of this entry »

If you want better health, you have to be disciplined. You have to engage in a healthy diet and exercise. And if you want stronger faith you need to feast on the Scripture (Soul food) and live the Word of God.

Grant Harrison had a brainstorm one day, as he was working at the Innovation Center at the Humana health-benefits company in Louisville. The Innovation Center is a think tank, so Harrison was…thinking. It was dawning on him that health-insurance companies need to change, that they can’t focus solely on health-policy reform. Then the light bulb went on: Read the rest of this entry »

God helps those who help themselves.

I imagine most of us have heard this phrase before. Historians like to attribute this theology to Ben Franklin, but he was merely repeating and old and popular idea of God – one that continues to resonate with American culture to this day. Pollsters estimate that roughly75 percent of Americans believe this saying is found in the Bible. There is even a citation for it on the Web: “God helps those who Read the rest of this entry »

Easter Season in the life of a Christian is one of the most awesome ones of the year. It is awesome because it is a proclamation – death is undone. Christ has Risen, Alleluia! Death without the resurrection of Christ would be the enemy.

Without Easter, death would be the end of all of us. The cruel reality is that every one of us will taste death’s bitter dregs. Read the rest of this entry »