Thursday of last week was Maundy Thursday. The word “Maundy” comes from the Latin word “Mandatum” meaning “command” or “mandate”. The “mandate” of that day is when Jesus told His disciples, “Love one another as I have loved you.” (John 13) Of course, last week Thursday we saw someone who did the opposite of that…
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Rev. Dr. Timothy Keller – a Christian speaker, pastor, and author – wrote a short book once called “Hidden Christmas”. In “Hidden Christmas” he argues that the true meaning of Christmas (Jesus’ incarnation and birth into the world for the sake of dying and rising for humanity) gets “hidden” by the commercial and sentimental secular…
There’s a joke that goes: Little 5 year old Samuel couldn’t go to church with the rest of his family one Palm Sunday because he was sick. He stayed home with his mother who took care of him while the rest of the family went to church. When his father and siblings came back, he…
I saw an interesting phrase that caught my attention the other day. The phrase was “sources of darkness”. As I thought about this phrase, I thought, “well, that’s odd – there are actually no ‘sources’ of darkness.” Darkness is an absence, and you don’t really have a “source” to an absence. That isn’t to say…
I started reading a new short book this past week. The title of the book is “Jobs to Be Done,” and the idea behind the book is that people inherently look at things in their lives as “jobs to be done,” and then “hire” different things or people to do those jobs. For instance, the…
There’s a lot of hubbub in the media today about the unsealing of some files from the JFK administration. Questions are obviously being asked about if these files say anything about his assassination, but also some questions that might seem sillier – like if they discuss his supposed relationship with Marilyn Monroe or even answer…
There is a historical artifact that shows us the way that Rome looked at Christianity in the 200’s AD. A piece of graffiti carved into the plaster of an excavated room near the Palentine Hill in Rome shows a man raising his arm in worship of a donkey-headed figure on a cross. Words around the…
Sometimes I hear Lutherans say, “we’re Lutheran, we don’t do that fasting stuff.” That’s not entirely correct. Luther’s Small Catechism says that fasting “is fine outward training.” (Small Catechism, On the Sacrament of the Altar). But if it is “fine outward training, what does that really mean? Fasting is a spiritual discipline, it is something…
We’re having a potluck after worship this Sunday at University Lutheran. It’s a weird word, “potluck”. The etymology of the word is unclear – we have no idea where or who started saying “potluck” first. And I’m sorry, but no, Lutherans probably invent the concept (although, neither did the Baptists who like to claim it…
Today I get to go to the dentist. It’s a great moment in my life that comes only so often and so the joyous expectation builds up in my soul until that moment that I sit down in the chair…. Actually, it’s nothing like that at all. I sort of dread getting in that chair.…