A Jesus Centered Community of Scripture, Faith, and Grace
Newsletter (Page 32)
When I was growing up there was an educational computer game called “Where in the Word is Carmen San Diego”. Sometimes I wonder if you could play that game with me, “Where in the World is Jay Winters”? Today I’m writing from St. Louis as I’m attending our National Youth Ministry Symposium, an event that…
I recently had my first trip to IKEA, and so all things sort of Northern European/Scandinavian are interesting to me. So when I found out about the Dutch concept of “niksen”, I was intrigued. “Niksen” is best translated as “doing something without a purpose”, so it’s like staring out of a window just to stare…
If you’ve ever had sushi in Japan, you’ll realize something when you taste the wasabi. There’s something wrong with it. Or more correctly there’s something wrong with the wasabi that you’re used to. The stuff that they serve at your favorite sushi restaurant in the United States, well, isn’t wasabi. It’s a horseradish blend with…
Gloooooo-ooo-ooo-ria! “Angels We Have Heard on High” This French hymn translated by John Chadwick into English is one of the greatest Christmas anthems that we have in the Church. But the French version is slightly different, it’s slightly more playful. The French version is loosely translated to “Angels in our Countryside,” and tends to bring…
Hymn writing isn’t often done for the money, and so because of that, many hymn writers had second jobs. Placide Cappeau, the writer of “O Holy Night,” was actually better known for most of his life as Placide Cappeau, the one-handed lawyer wine merchant. Placide started life as the son of a vintner, a wine…
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”…