By Kent Burreson A Journey for the Ages This homiletical help provides reflections on central themes for the Ascension in light of the liturgical context and hymnography for the feast. The Gospel reading for the Ascension of Our Lord is the Lukan account of Jesus’ final teaching and his return to his Father. It is ..
How about that! I actually saw a cerulean warbler. But it wouldn’t have happened without some help. At Lost Valley Trail in Weldon Spring, MO, I ran into a more experienced birder who went by the name, Rad
By Quentin F. Wesselschmidt Preliminary considerations: In his recent book, The Lost History of Christianity (New York: HarperOne, 2008), Philip Jenkins writes: In the late ninth century, an elderly Egyptian monk shocked his Muslim listeners when he explicitly denied that Christianity could be supported purely on the grounds of reason, and agreed that ideas like ..
By Henry Gerike The Great Fifty Days of Easter continue as the Church explores how it stays alive. Christ’s resurrection certainly makes us alive. To remain alive in Christ is to stay connected to him through his Word and the Sacraments. The idea of the vineyard and the vine is not new; it was already ..
A few weeks ago I reviewed a fascinating book by Scott Weidensaul about the migration of birds in the western hemisphere. Here in St
By Erik Herrmann The Good Shepherd. It’s such a well-known image. It seems to be relevant in every age—from the earliest times in the catacombs where Christ was so often depicted as a youthful Apollonian shepherd, to the modern Sunday school pictures of the gentle Jesus cradling a lamb, the Good Shepherd continues to be ..
By Bruce G. Schuchard To Seek Him 1. One must look for the right Jesus 2. One must find him where he may be found For them, for Jesus’ followers, something had been and so still was sorely lacking. And the effect upon them was profound indeed. “Why do you seek the living among the ..
Last year in a little article, “Can Lutherans Observe Earth Day?” I asked if being theologically conservative required us to be politically conservative on social issues like the environment. After all, Luther’s recovery of the Gospel led him to revalue creation as our good home
By Bruce Hartung Among the many themes clearly evident from this text, e.g., doubt and faith using the experience of Thomas (20:24—29), belief in Christ fostered by the telling of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ (20:30-31), this sermon help will focus on the theme of fear and peace (20:19-22, 26). For sermon helps ..
My colleague, Tim Saleska, put me on to an op-ed in the New York Times regarding a ballot initiative that was passed by Californians to ban certain factory farm practices. In particular, it states that farm animals cannot be confined for their entire lives to cages in which they cannot move
Sometimes I wonder if we conservative Christians have become what might be called second and third article Christians (that is we care only about the second & third articles of the Nicene Creed). In other words, we think of Jesus as the one who gets us to heaven with the result that we then regard creation as of little importance by comparison
By Robert Kolb Introductory thoughts: These women appear to be bewildered, to be sure, and somewhat befuddled and bungling. They apparently had just not thought of how they would get to the body, behind that massive stone that blocked the entrance, behind those Roman guards. They could not know, of course, that theirs was a ..
By Travis J. Scholl As seems the case every time we encounter a pericope from the Gospel of Mark, we can start by noticing what is not there. The “Palm Sunday” in Mark isn’t triumphal, at least not with the same sense of triumph that we find in the other gospels. But Mark does give ..
By David R. Maxwell The Slave of All The Passion Prediction (Mark 10:32-34) This is the third time Jesus predicts his death and resurrection in Mark. The first time, Peter takes him aside and rebukes him (Mk 8:31-32). The second time, the disciples do not understand and are afraid to ask him about it (Mk ..
By Robert Rosin Although the reading begins with verse 14, the context from the start of the chapter is helpful. Nicodemus, a learned man, an expert in the law, and a leader of the religious community (Sanhedrin), came by night to see Jesus—to see but not be seen. Darkness provided cover, giving Nicodemus hope that ..
By Joel D. Biermann Thoughts from the Text The number of midweek Lenten series with at least one Wednesday devoted to a meditation on the scourge is probably beyond number. “Jesus and the Scourge” is a title that makes sense and you know the basic outline: our innocent Lord is made to suffer excruciating pain ..