It came upon a midnight clear, that glorious song of old, from angels bending near the earth, to touch their harps of gold. “Peace on earth, goodwill to men, from heaven’s all-gracious King.” . . . the  beginning of the song at least is familiar to us, but there is a 3rd verse to this…

“Joy to the World,” it is how we end every Christmas Eve service here at University Lutheran. This classic Christmas hymn is based on Psalm 98, which is a psalm of high praise – a good fit for a Christmas hymn, but it is also based on Genesis 3. The third verse of the hymn…

O Come, All Ye Faithful, joyful and triuuuuuumphant. For the next few weeks, we’re going to be looking at a few Christmas hymns. O Come, All Ye Faithful is a hymn originally written in the mid 1700’s in Latin. We don’t know who wrote it, exactly. It has been attributed to several people – but…

This past Sunday was the end of our 500 year Reformation celebration Annual Focus, “What does this mean?” This coming Sunday, we’re going to be starting a new Annual Focus, “We are the Body”. Last year we prepared ourselves by immersing ourselves in Lutheran theological concepts. This year, we’re going to look at how those…

Thanksgiving! As the father of a three year old, yesterday I was watching the PBS show “Daniel Tiger”. Daniel Tiger is a spin off of the old Mister Roger’s Neighborhood, in which Daniel Tiger of the Neighborhood of Make-Believe has his own show. In this episode, Daniel Tiger and his family celebrated “Thank You Day”…

Yesterday I went to the doctor. It was nothing serious, just a check up. I walked in, the nurse had me step on the scale, checked by height, took me back to the examination room, took my temperature, my pulse, and my blood pressure. It was a check.  This past Sunday we confessed a part…

Yesterday I went to the doctor. It was nothing serious, just a check up. I walked in, the nurse had me step on the scale, checked by height, took me back to the examination room, took my temperature, my pulse, and my blood pressure. It was a check.  This past Sunday we confessed a part…

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 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…