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 …
Tag: God
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 …
Looking in the Mirror
For at least the past five years one quote from a now sainted theologian has rattled around in my head. “Too often,” said Anthony Thiselton, “we attack or defend before we have genuinely understood.”1 He spoke that in an address he gave in the mid-80s as he took up a post as Principal of St. …
The Path of Love
Twenty years before I was born the publishing house of my church body published a book called The Daily Office. It was a daily devotional, structured and rooted in the ancient liturgical traditions of the church. It fell out of use, as devotional texts do, but I was on the hunt for a copy for …
Weary of All Trumpeting…
I am the kind of pastor that doesn’t shy away from picking hymns that are, by any reasonable standard, hard to sing. This coming Sunday will feature my favorite Reformation hymn “O God, O Lord, of Heaven and Earth.” If you know, you know. If you don’t, go listen to it. Hard to sing is …
People
The congregation I serve is about a mile from a naval air station. A fairly decent portion of the people who commune with me on a Sunday have connections to that naval base either because they are or were active duty there, engage in or retired from contract work there, or have a friend or …
an occasional theologian 