Is the world speeding up? In some ways, we would say that the question is preposterous. The Earth continues to spin on its axis at the speed of 460 meters per second (at the equator). But perhaps the speed of the earth is a bigger question than how fast we are spinning or going around…
A Jesus Centered Community of Scripture, Faith, and Grace
Posts by University Lutheran (Page 19)
“Grace” like “Faith” can be a difficult word for understand. When you look up the definition of the word, you come up with “simple elegance or refinement of movement,” as the first definition. Even the second definition is only “courteous goodwill”. Only in looking at subsequent definitions do you find something more like the theological…
Charles Blondin was a tightrope walker who made a name for himself stretching a cable over the quarter of a mile between the United States and Canadian sides of Niagra Falls. Blondin impressed many people by easily walking across the tightrope time and time again. He even upped the ante several times, going across in…
You probably know the song: “Jesus loves me this I know….” “…for the Bible tells me so.” Those lines aren’t just sentimental, they are a great theological statement. In the world of theology, there are two identifying statements for Christian denominations. They are called the “Material Principle” and the “Formal Principle”. The “Material Principle” is…
“Of” is a pretty small word for all of its uses. I’m reminded of when I learned that “Of David” above many of the Psalms (e.g. Psalm 4, 23, 31) can mean different things. Some of the “of David” psalms mean that they are written by him, others mean that they are written according to…
If you’ve ever played the Parker Brothers game “Monopoly,” you’ve landed on a space called “Community Chest”. This space has its roots in the history of Atlantic City, NJ, which is the “base city” for the game’s many property names. The “Community Chest” in the early days of Atlantic City was a philanthropic organization which…
I call “A Jesus Centered Community of Scripture, Faith, and Grace” our “identity statement” at University Lutheran. In organizational parlance, there are mission statements galore, but this isn’t really a “mission statement” because rather than telling us “what we do” it tells us who we are. Because of our baptisms, the biggest part of our…
You can explore the PowerPoint Slides from our overview study of the Book of Concord, the Lutheran Confessions. The Book of Concord is the definitive guide to what it means to be a Lutheran. Assembled together in 1580, after Martin Luther’s death, these documents formed what defined Lutheran theology – including initial statements of faith…
If you’ve ever noticed the tag line that comes along with our branding at University Lutheran, you will know that it says “A Jesus Centered Community of Scripture, Faith, and Grace.” The first part of that is the indefinite article “a”. Back in June I wrote about the power of the definite article, but there…
Tomorrow marks my 15th year of ordained service to the Church. Wikipedia tells me that fifteen is a “superabundant number,” but the article linked there confuses me. It also tells me it is a “triangular number” because you make make a triangle with 15 parts. It tells me that in Hebrew you write 15 as…