I don’t know if it’s all preachers that get sheepish around the recitation of the explanation of the 3rd commandment, but I sure do: What is the 3rd Commandment? Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and…

The second commandment will often get interpreted as the “Thou Shalt Not Use Four Letter Words” commandment. However, that may be a bit of a mistake. Except in the case of one particular American invective (the one where you call on God to banish something into eternal torment) the case that Paul makes in Ephesians…

You shall have no other gods. What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust God above all things. This past Sunday we started something that we’re planning on doing all year long – in addition to our confession of the Creeds (the Nicene this Sunday), we recited or confessed a portion of Luther’s…

This past Sunday I revealed in my sermon that I occasionally feel a little weird about people finding me praying. After all, who knows, maybe I could be napping. Of course, then I thought about how tough it is for someone whose vocation isn’t supposed to be religious. I mean, if I’m afraid of people…

Technically Lutherans don’t believe in a “separation” of church and state, at least in as much as we hear that term being used today. Lutheran theology when it comes to politics is called “Two Kingdoms” theology or “Two Realms” theology. Essentially these two “Kingdoms” are as follows: God’s rule which He maintains for Himself (often…

I’m not a Cubs fan. In fact, as a Cardinals fan, I was told that Cardinals fans cheer for the St. Louis Cardinals and whoever is playing the Cubs. But getting caught up in Christian empathy, I can’t help but smile as the Chicago Cubs won their first World Series in over 100 years (and…

As you’re reading this, I’m probably either up in the air or in St. Louis. The reason for that is that I have been invited to be a part of a think tank group that is addressing something that happened this past summer at the LCMS National Convention. Namely, that a resolution was passed that…

The phrase “eating crow” means to admitting something that is less than savory. The idea is that if you were to ever eat a crow, it wouldn’t taste that good. It certainly wouldn’t taste as good as cake. After my article last week in which I challenged some of the clericalism that I see in…

The Bechdel test is a corrective that was thought up by comic book writer Alison Bechdel. The Bechdel test is a simple question – does this story have two named female characters who are speaking to each other about something other than a man? The idea is that a story that doesn’t pass the test…

I read recently that the normal expectation for salaried employees is right around 55 hours. This is up from the 40 hour work week that was deemed normative in 1940 by the Fair Labor Standards Act. However, it is down from what the government found in 1890. What they found then was that labor workers…