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Advent 4 · Micah 5:2-5a · December 20, 2009
By Timothy Saleska Background notes (the text in context) 1. Micah 1:1 sets the ministry of Micah in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of…
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New religion and politics center started at Wash U
John Danforth delivering the homily at Ronald Reagan's funeral in 2004 (Screen capture: C-SPAN) The New York Times broke the story on the formation of…
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Advent 3 · Zephaniah 3:14-20 · December 13, 2009
By Gerhard Bode Throughout the Church Year the church rejoices in the gracious coming of Christ to itself in the Word of God and in the…
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"A Serious Man": the Coen brothers’ retelling of Job
I recently saw A Serious Man, the Coen brothers new film, at the Tivoli. In between an opening prologue of a Yiddish folk tale and…
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Advent 2 · Malachi 3:1-7b · December 6, 2009
By Wallace Becker This is the Old Testament reading for Advent 2. “He comes.” Prepare for his coming. The reading from Malachi says that God will…
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Public confession as "atonement": Mark McGwire, Andre Agassi, and now Tiger Woods
Will he talk or won’t he? It’s a question St. Louis sports fans have been talking about for weeks now. The “he” in question is…
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Advent 1 · Jeremiah 33:14-16 · November 29, 2009
By Joel D. Biermann Thoughts from the text So, it begins again: another church year, another Advent, another Christmas shopping season, another winter … another time…
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Proper 29 · Mark 13:24-37 · November 22, 2009
By Joel D Biermann Considerations in relation to the text 1. There is no doubt about the theme for this Sunday’s text. Every Scripture reading…
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The Velvet Revolution, Vaclav Havel, and Stanley Hauerwas…20 years later
The New York Times did a nice retrospective yesterday on Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution on its 20th anniversary. I was 15 years old when the Berlin…