We often read the words of God, we see the words of grace, and we read and repeat them often. But what is happening when we mouth the words of grace, but a gracious spirit is far from us? We read the words, but we fail to understand what kind of paper the words are …
The Spirit Who Bonds
The communion we experience as Christians with one another all the time The ritual enactment of that communion that we experience here is called, not surprisingly, communion. We take communion because we are a communion. And we are a communion because of the gift of the Holy Spirit. Consider this benediction that Paul gives. “The …
Gods Many and Lords Many
Father, we know that when we hear that Jesus is both Lord and Christ, this knowledge should cause us to be cut to the heart. We confess that our nation is not in fact cut to the heart, and so the reason must be that they have not heard that Jesus Christ has been established …
Bones and Silicon
In this congregation, you have heard much about the grace of God. But when you hear much of anything, it is easy for that word to become a theological buzz word—the grace of God is just one of those Bible phrases, right? And since we all think we know what the Bible is about, we …
Table of Plenty
In the Old Testament, one of the things that we learn about meals is that they draw boundaries. They define the limit between who is in and who is out. This is the first, the rudimentary lesson. The New Testament does not set this lesson aside but rather builds on it. The New Testament does …
Theologies With Wiggle Room
Father, Your Word summons all nations everywhere to listen to the voice of Your faithful Son, Your faithful Servant. We confess that as a nation we have wanted to assume that the residual moral capital of former generations is good enough, and that we can somehow pretend to know the difference between right and wrong …
In Him
The fear of God is the foundation of every form of righteous fearlessness. The refusal to fear God opens you up to every kind of timorousness. Jesus tells us explicitly that we are not to fear man, but rather to fear God. He sets this forth as a basic alternative. If you fear God, you …
The City That Cannot Fall
In Daniel 1:8-16, Belshazzar holds a great feast, on the night when the great city of Babylon fell. There was eating and drinking, and there were even sacred vessels from the Temple in use there—but not for blessing. That was the night when a hand appeared and wrote on the wall that “you have been …
Fearing Phantoms
Father, we confess our fear to You. As a nation, our courage has turned to bluster, our confidence into a calculated pose. We are afraid of real threats, like economic hard times or terrorism, and we are afraid of phantoms of our imagination, like global warming. Father, as a people it often appears that we …
Players, Printers, Preachers
Because this is a Sunday, we are commemorating our Lord’s resurrection from the dead. Because it is All Saints Eve, we are acknowledging all the elect of God from every century, from every tribe and nation, north, south, east or west. And because it is Reformation Sunday, we are marking the great work of God …