The other week I buried a woman. She was advanced in years, in her mid nineties, and her death did not come as a surprise or a shock. At the close of the service I spoke two stanzas of a hymn I learned sitting in the pews of Lent midweek worship services. There was a …
A Lutheran of Conviction
I once heard someone say they are a Lutheran of conviction. I didn’t know what they meant then but I know what I might mean if I were to say it now. I would mean it in the way that Hermann Sasse once spoke about Lutheran identity. “We are faithful to this church, not because …
Good Lord, deliver us…
It’s been one week since… It’s been one week since I turned forty. A true statement but likely not the way anyone finished that sentence, including myself. It’s been one week since someone bearing the image of God murdered another. Even that doesn’t narrow it down but I’m sure in the minds of many the …
Never Forget
Never forget. Those words have been associated with this date on the calendar for over two decades. Like many others, I remember where I was, what I was doing, and what the days following the incident felt like. Those days were different than the days today. Then it felt like people pulled together—albeit in opposition …
Sharing the Southwell
The now sainted Anthony Thiselton gave a lecture back in the 1980s when he assumed a new post as Principal of St. John's, Nottingham dealing with exegesis and the posture of the interpreter (you can read the lecture here). I've often thought about that lecture in part because of one line in particular: Too often …
Troubled Hearts
Eight years ago my wife and I were expecting our second child. We went in for a gender scan at 18 weeks and they couldn’t find a heartbeat. To say that we were gutted is an understatement. Some may not see the death of a child in the womb as equivalent to the death of …
A Prayer for the Church
Below is the litany I'm praying this week from the daily devotional I use, and have shared before, published in 1965 by Concordia Publishing House titled, The Daily Office. I am inviting you to pray it with me on this anniversary of the presentation of the Augsburg Confession. Litany for the Holy Christian Church O …
What Should We Speak?
One of the reasons I appreciate engaging in historical research, particularly related to the early to mid-twentieth century, is because it reminds me that today is not harder to live in—it only seems that way. To be fair, today is a hard time in which to live for a variety of reasons, not the least …
Love is Prior
This coming Sunday we are planning on having a couple of deaths and resurrections otherwise known as baptisms. As I read the scriptures I see baptism not as something I or others do to show our commitment to God so much as it is God’s way of making disciples of all nations, God’s way of …
The Stupid Standard
Today my alma mater, Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, is holding its commencement exercises. I love a good commencement exercise. I enjoy the pomp and circumstance, the academic regalia, the nods to the institution and traditions of which those graduates become an everlasting part. At the seminary in particular my heart warms hearing “Thy Strong …
an occasional theologian 