This week we kick off our Eastertide sermon series, “Signs of Life”. This series is one that I have been looking forward to, but is also one that challenges me. The whole idea behind the series is to look at seven biological signs of life, things that reveal that something is living. These signs are…
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A pastor friend told me once about an experience he had as a seminarian visiting the church of a friend of his who happened to be a pastor’s son. Everyone in the service seemed enraptured by the sermon which had this refrain of “this is the day!” At the end of the service everyone left…
Holy Week starts this Sunday with the celebration of Palm Sunday (11am) and continues with Maundy Thursday (7pm), Good Friday (7pm), and finally with the celebration of Easter Sunday (11am). The theme of our Holy Week this year is “the Heart”. This whole year we are talking about the reality that “We are the Body,”…
The epic synthesized trumpets, the sultry licks of the electric guitar, the quiet percussion of the tapped cymbals in the background. It can mean only one thing – the “Rocky” training theme song. It’s probably playing in your head right now as you think about it. If it’s not, treat yourself by opening YouTube and…
Are you in trouble? Everyone’s in some kind of trouble: financial trouble, personal trouble. Maybe you have a troubled past. Whatever the nature of your trouble, the reason you have trouble is sin. Sin results in a troubled life for everyone. It’s the reason we wander, the reason we faint, the reason we sit in…
I don’t know about anyone else, but I confess, I’m not very good at praying. It seems that all Christian leaders encourage prayer. I’ve heard a lot of them say how we should not just pray, but pray with confidence, informally, as a child talking to their father. Some even say that we should claim…
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” These opening words from Psalm 22 are no doubt familiar to us from when quoted by Christ as He was on the cross paying the penalty of human sin. The psalmist David paints a detailed image of the suffering that about one thousand years later would occur in…
Psalm 26 begins with, “Judge me, O Lord…” What a stunning request! It is so scary that I initially just stopped reading at the first verse. I am not eager to face God’s judgment because the outcome of this “trial” has the eternal consequences of heaven or hell. So Lord, if you don’t mind, let’s…
Transfiguration this coming Sunday marks the end of the Epiphany season, which will be replaced starting on the Wednesday after (Feb 14) by Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. During this seasonal change we will be taking the opportunity to hear from “the Body”, the people connected to University Lutheran, instead of from Pastor…
When I was growing up there was an educational computer game called “Where in the Word is Carmen San Diego”. Sometimes I wonder if you could play that game with me, “Where in the World is Jay Winters”? Today I’m writing from St. Louis as I’m attending our National Youth Ministry Symposium, an event that…