The Holy Spirit is probably the mysterious person of the Trinity. I think we see that in the way that the 3rd article of the Creed gets written. The 1st and 2nd articles seem to have this formula that goes, “I believe in (Father/Son), and this is what He does…(creates, comes to earth and redeems).…

It is always dangerous to come up with a metaphor that describes the Trinity. Sooner or later, you’re bound to commit some kind of heresy if you take the metaphor far enough. So as I get into this, please don’t read too much into this metaphor. Consider the endeavor of making a film. It usually…

Our word “economy” has its roots in the Greek word for “household,”: oikos. Economy is the “nomos”, the laws, of the oikos, the “household”. It is how things work in the household. The study of economics is supposed to show how all of the people in the “household” of a country or a society work…

This summer, I’m planning walking through a little refresher on the Small Catechism. If it has been a while, you can always check it out at http://catechism.cph.org . Luther didn’t invent the idea of the catechism. Catechisms had existed for quite some time, some argue from even around 70 AD, not long after Jesus had…

If you follow our social media channels (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok), you’ll see that we’re starting off a little campaign there that we are calling “Sanctified Summer,” digging into Luther’s Small Catechism one little bite at a time. A lot of Lutherans haven’t looked at their Small Catechisms in a while, at least since they were…

This past week I have been at the funeral service of Brenda Weisiger, saw the livestream of Virginia Riedthaler’s funeral, and was able to officiate the wedding of two of our alumni, Emma Pollard and Hunter Garrison. Weddings and funerals are called “occasional services” in church terms – services that are not tied to the…

Recently I downloaded a kind of fun app called “Slowly”. Slowly’s claim to fame is that it is an international pen pal app. Having been raised overseas and having traveled to a few different places in the world, the idea of communicating with someone from another country was interesting to me. The other thing that…

For a few weeks in the newsletter, you’ve seen a note that I (Pastor Jay) am starting classes this week for a “Doctor of Ministry” that is affectionately known as the “D.Min”, not to be confused with the nefarious spirit creature. I am taking on this project with so much gratitude for University Lutheran, allowing…

Today is the Feast of Ascension – the day that Jesus blessed His disciples and was taken up into heaven. It is probably something that we don’t give much thought to, which is unfortunate because the Ascension has a lot of theological connotations that we should probably not ignore. I bumped into one of those…

Last week I encouraged people to send in questions that might “stump the pastor” in the “Question of the Week” portion of the newsletter. I got, well, actually nothing. But someone did send in a question on the Sunday connection card, and that question was “What are cherubim and seraphim?” Connecting this with last week’s newsletter…