Distinctions. We make them all the time. We distinguish body and soul, Law and Gospel, justification and sanctification, the two natures of Christ, faith and good works. We make distinctions because our mouths don’t multi-task. Nor do our brains, no matter how much we kid ourselves. You can only talk and…
Today is the 8th and last in our sermon series on Paul’s circular letter to the Ephesian congregation. We’ve come a long way. From the “cosmic Christ” and Paul’s remarkable statement that God has “recapitulated” everything in heaven and earth in the crucified and risen body of Jesus, to our own election in…
I remember my sixth grade English teacher. She was young, blonde, and quite beautiful. All the boys in 6th grade had a major crush on her. That’s not why I remember her, though. I remember her for sentence diagramming. Sentence diagramming is pretty much a lost art these days and…
A weak prophet. A weak apostle. A weak Messiah in His home congregation. If you’re looking for displays of divine muscle, you’re a week too late. Last week we had two healings for the price of one - a woman cured of a twelve year bleeding and a twelve year old…
Last Sunday, we heard about Jesus asleep at the helm of a sinking boat. This Sunday, something a little closer to our experience - Jesus caught in heavy traffic. In his version of the Gospel, Mark gives us two intertwined stories - the story of a desparate women whose last hope was to…
She was obviously very religious, clutching a worn Bible in one hand, nervously fingering the tiny, gold cross that hung from her neck with the other. She was also obviously afraid to fly. She’d been anxious since going through airport security, and old images of 9/11 kept creeping into her mind. She…
Some people thought Jesus was crazy. They were saying, “He’s beside himself.” You know, not playing with a full deck, elevator stopping a floor or two short. Lost his mind. Surrounded by a crowd of religious fanatics and weirdos, calling disciples, going around preaching the kingdom of God. His family…
The human heart is a religion factory busily cranking out religions one after another. Ever since Adam and Eve took a bite out of the fruit that brought good and evil into perspective, and then tried to hide behind their own self-stitched fig leaves, we’ve been suckers for religion.
I’m speaking of religion…
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
Today is Holy Trinity Sunday. On the western catholic calendar, Holy Trinity is the first Sunday after Pentecost. It’s a day to take a big, deep breath and confess the incomprehensible - God as one divine Being in…
It’s Pentecost Sunday. You can tell that from all the red. It’s the only Sunday I get to wear red, except for Reformation Day, which isn’t always on a Sunday. Red is the symbol for fire and blood: the fire of the Holy Spirit and for the blood of the martyrs…