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…
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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.…
In Matthew 16, Jesus asks His disciples an important question: “Who is Jesus?” He starts off asking them how other people answer that question, and then He drills down to them: “But who do you say that I am?” This past Sunday at the Super Bowl, I saw something that I’ve seen happen many times…
There’s a story of a young seminary graduate who was sent to a village where an elder missionary had established a church community. The older missionary was showing the young man around and introduced the young man to the chief of the village. Figuring he would make an impression, the seminarian said “In the wisdom…