I watched this TED Talk expecting to hear what I already knew to be true, that AI is making more problems than it is solving. We may not see it yet, but enough people have been sounding the alarm bells over the last few months that it should not come as a shock. Fridges loosing …
It’s More Than OK
In the run up to the last presidential election here in the states, the Republican National Convention did something very common, it closed with prayer. Civic events often have some kind of religious element to them. We know that legislative sessions often open and close with prayer, sometimes to the chagrin of those who would …
Stitches of Horror, Honor, and Hope
“To live in the twentieth century is to wear the stitch of horror on one’s heart, so close are we to the edge of violence.” — Martin Marty Marty wrote those words in the shadow of World War II, the Korean Conflict, and the Cold War. I was born in the twentieth century but I …
Finding What I Wasn’t Looking For
This morning I was chatting with the SMP vicar I am supervising and a book recommendation popped into my head. I went to my shelf and couldn’t find it. I know I have it, but I can’t find it. Such is life when your kids art adorns your selves and the order you initially put …
Surprise and Delight
When I worked at Apple, well over a decade and a half ago, we had a bin in the back of unused parts from newly opened boxes. Headphones, charging cables, and other odd bits and bobs filled it to the brim. We called it the “surprise and delight” box because if a customer came in …
If he wins, the synod loses…
If he wins, the synod loses. That’s why you should vote for Matt Harrison. If he wins, the synod loses. That’s why you should vote for Ben Ball. If he wins, the synod loses. That’s why you should vote for Joel Biermann. If he wins, the synod loses. That’s why you shouldn’t vote at all. …
What is possible…
Speaking about slavery in the past and present, Pope Leo XIV wrote the following in his latest encyclical Magnifica Humanitas: In the development of her doctrine, the Church has gradually come to a deeper awareness of the gravity of these issues. It is true that past events cannot be judged anachronistically, as though the moral criteria …
Wondering Whether to Speak
Lent is a time when a pastor does not need to add one more thing to the schedule. Anyone who has been a pastor knows that. This isn’t a complaint, it is a reality. Work doubles in Lent. Advent is a sprint, Lent is a marathon, and adding to the marathon is less than ideal. …
Love in the Mess
“Life in the church at Corinth was a mess and getting messier.” Not much, it seems, has changed. As if the normal schisms and heresies that distress the church weren’t enough, my own church body is in the news because one of our district presidents was arrested by federal agents for crimes against children. There …
Stewarding Life’s Crises
“We train you here to be stewards of life’s crises.” Former chaplain and seminary professor Martin Scharlemann preached those words in chapel at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis decades before I was born. Not much has changed in pastoral ministry since he did. Pastors exist, whether I like it or not, to steward the crises …
