There are a lot of things in Latino culture that I, a white kid raised in Asia, don’t get. But one of the things that I DO get is the Latino celebration of “Dia de los Muertos” – the Day of the Dead. This past week we confessed part of the addendum to the Small…
A Jesus Centered Community of Scripture, Faith, and Grace
Church Blog (Page 34)
A Lutheran pastor, an Episcopalian priest, and a Roman Catholic brother sit around and have a beer. It’s not the opening line of a joke, it’s what happened on October 31st on the couches of University Lutheran. Others were invited, and we even would have invited the Baptist guy had he been there – but…
We all have our morning routines. The things that we groggily get out of bed and do as a matter of habit rather than a matter of thought. Here lately, my morning routine has consisted of getting out of bed well before the kids get up, grabbing my notebook and spending the first 15 minutes…
We’re having a potluck of sorts after worship this coming Sunday. We’re celebrating our newest members as well as having an early celebration of the Reformation, the 500th anniversary of it. We’re not fasting to commemorate these events, we’re feasting. This is just another evidence in something that I have known for a while, Lutherans…
There are times that I unceremoniously snicker at the titles of Lutheran hymns. One of my favorites is “My Lord, What a morning” which I always thought would pair well with other classic “bad day” songs like “Sunday Morning Coming Down” by Kris Kristofferson, “Manic Monday” by the Bangles, or “My Head Hurts, My Feet…
“Why would I want to do that?” That was the question that I asked the person on the other end of the line who wanted to sell me some product. “Well we have a very good reputation and we’re running a new service, blah blah blah . . .” was the response that I received.…
I remember reading my friend Travis Scholl’s book “Walking the Labyrinth” , and being struck by a line that was probably otherwise somewhat forgettable. He talked about one of his earliest memories of being a part of the community of the Church as playing in the pews and smelling the wine from communion on his…
Just this past weekend I was reminded of an item called a “church key”, a term used for a certain type of bottle opener. According to at least one source, this name came about because the bottle opener’s rounded opener looked like the ring on one of the large skeleton keys used on church doors. …
The first time I confessed my sins to a pastor, it wasn’t what I had imagined. We all have that Hollywood image of what it means to go to confession: the little closet room with the sliding window, the priest saying “how long has it been since your last confession?”, etc. Mine was at seminary.…
I remember Emory Hingst (pastor at University Lutheran in the 60s) telling a story about an early University Lutheran Easter service that they held in one of the Tallahassee cemeteries. The experience was palpable with the sense of victory over the grave as the people gathered to worship the King of Life who rose from…