|
||||||
|
Here is an essay by the above mentioned Joseph Bottom at First Things. Warning, it is deep and political and not a simple read. Truly about First Things as an American. We come across these hard sayings like, “I’ve not come to bring peace but division (Luke 12:51)” or the refrain “the first will . . . → Read More: Joseph Bottom has been Listening to the Lectionary… 
Text: Luke 13:22-30 Full Text I like the word cloud. Grace makes things topsy-turvy. It scrambles our hard won pieties. But thankfully, the narrow door is one opened by grace. A door made of anything else and nobody would be thin enough. The text is interesting to me because of who it appears to . . . → Read More: The Narrow Door…Big Enough for Everyone
Here is a WSJ article about an interesting trip. Here are the author’s ongoing site. a snipet… But we and Luther do share one significant similarity: We’re both living in the midst of a communication revolution. For Luther it was the printing press. He and his followers were able to use pamphlets and ever-cheaper printed books . . . → Read More: A Thousand Miles in the Footsteps of Martin Luther
Full Text There are a number of points I review and judge a sermon on. Being cut and thrust personality, I like criteria for evaluation that are as crunchy (vs. squishy) as possible. Coming out of a number of sources (CFW Walther’s Law & Gospel, Dr. Schmitt my Homiletics Prof at Concordia, Robert Dabney . . . → Read More: Specific Grace – Relooking at the Prodigal Son – Lk 15:11-32
This article by Mr. Charles Blow in the New York Times is an interesting article that confirms a longer running idea in kids or young adult ministry. I can remember 12 years ago when the catch phrase was mystery. Youth didn’t like “religion”, but they dug that mystery. The opening story of the young . . . → Read More: Spiritual, not religious…exactly the wrong attitude?
Full Text Let me just say two things about this sermon: 1) I really hate it as a sermon. I think it misses the audience, doesn’t point to Christ enough, lacks a real solid textual foundation and doesn’t have the unity of message it should have. 2) I think some of the parts of . . . → Read More: All Saints – Two Calendars telling a story
This is from a review of a new book called after lives… Augustine won out in his battle against two early Christian thinkers, Origen and Pelagius, who were declared heretics for suggesting that moral self-help could co-exist with divine grace as a means of gaining salvation. Mr. Casey notes an irony: The Vatican has never formally . . . → Read More: After lives…
Full Text The gospel texts are sparse. What I mean by that is they relate just enough information to tell the story and expect you the reader to fill in the gaps from your knowledge and experience. We do this type of stuff everyday of our lives. The closer the person is to . . . → Read More: Sermon – “Who can be saved?” – Mark 10:23-31
The guy puts up seemingly 30 posts a day on a huge variety of topics. There are all kinds of reasons for tuning him out or just not bothering. And then Andrew Sullivan posts something like this… I have never found the theodicy argument against faith convincing. My own faith teaches me that suffering . . . → Read More: Theology of the Cross in the Oddest Places?
A quick note – I’ve been a slacker about writing most of this summer. It has been a summer full – full of joys and of sorrows. I intend to get back to a 3 – 4 day a week cycle God willing. Text: Mark 13:28-37 Maybe it is a psychological thing, my good daughter . . . → Read More: The turn to fall, the fig and the command to Watch! |
 |
|||||
|
Copyright © 2010 St. Mark's Lutheran - All Rights Reserved |
||||||
