Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church, Prairie City, Missouri, the first church that I served after graduating from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. I was invited to preach at their kickoff celebration on April 22. The theme of the year-long celebration is “God’s Grace From Generation to Generation.” It…
I came across some passages in a dogmatics textbook recently that pretty well summarize the kind of thoughts that really get the juices flowing in my brain. They are taken from pages 18-20 of volume one of Christian Dogmatics, Carl E Braaten and Robert W. Jenson, editors, published in 1984 by Fortress Press, Philadelphia. This…
In honor of this week’s celebration of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, I have compiled a list of my five favorite resurrection appearances. As one scholar points out, if Jesus’ resurrection was something that his disciples made up, they would have scripted the stories better, making themselves appear in a much better light.…
Minnesotans will watch tomorrow’s Super Bowl with a feeling of “what could have been.” Our Minnesota Vikings had a great regular season and were well positioned for the playoffs. With just two wins in the post season we would playing the Super Bowl in our home stadium. Sadly, even with the help of the “Minneapolis…
I grew up in a Muslim-majority area of Africa. I currently have neighbors who are devout Muslims. I studied Islam at the seminary and in various continuing education classes since then. Yet still there was much that I learned from Hanadi Chehebeddine’s “Demystifying Islam” presentation at the Steele County History Center on January 18. According…
By now, hopefully, you have taken down your 2017 calendar and put up your 2018 calendar. Maybe you have marked the new calendar with important dates like birthdays, anniversaries, vacations. Or maybe this year you are taking the plunge and getting rid of the old-fashioned paper calendars and going all digital. But whatever your preference,…
January 6 is set aside in the church calendar to celebrate the Epiphany, a word that means “revealing.” The Epiphany season runs from January 6 to Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Lenten season. Epiphany refers to Jesus revealing his divine nature through his humanity. It’s one thing to reveal divinity by doing God-like things…
Of all the things that should keep going year round, Christmas is one of them. It is the celebration of the holy birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Holy Scripture tells us who this holy Christ child is: He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his…
Anytime a world record is shattered it’s big news. The recent sale of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting Salvator Mundi for $450 million far exceeds the previous record price for the sale of a work of art. Leonardo da Vinci is widely considered one of the most diversely talented individuals ever to have lived. His areas…
In an effort to help a family member who has a very profound fear of bad weather, I have compiled a list of hymns verses from a couple Lutheran hymnals. Hopefully these poetic expressions of our Lord’s care and protection will help when the storm clouds gather. The two hymnals are Lutheran Service Book and Lutheran…
Mirror Neurons 