Year’s End Summary: the Hassle about the Gospel

Colleagues,First off two notices. If they were printed in the Classified Ads, they’d be under PERSONALS: 1. On this very day, December 27, 2001, God willing, Marie and I will start driving from St. Louis to New Haven, Connecticut for a spring-semester stint at a new workplace. I’m to serve as Senior Mission Scholar at the Overseas Ministries …

Even So, Lord Jesus, Come Quickly

Colleagues,Last year’s Christmas posting “Thoughts of a Manger” [ThTh 133] was the poem-prayer of my sister-in-law Linda Schroeder composed from the hospital bed where a hit-and-run driver had put her with a shattered leg and major internal injuries on Advent I. Now a year later Linda is still on crutches. The leg bones did not knit after eleven …

Sermons Empty of Gospel : Part 3

Colleagues, For this week’s posting, ThTh 183, two additional responses to the topic.Peace & Joy! Ed Schroeder From Robert A. Kelly, Professor of Systematic Theology Waterloo Lutheran Seminary/Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada I found the last two editions of ThTh very interesting, in part because this term our homiletics prof and I have been conducting an …

Sermons Empty of Gospel: Part 2

Colleagues, Here are some responses to Dave Endorf’s letter of last week (ThTh 181) about sermons with no gospel in them. Dave’s letter, you may remember, was addressed to Jerry Burce, author of PROCLAIMING THE SCANDAL. We used Jerry’s book in our course on preaching this fall at the Lutheran School of Theology here in St. Louis.On …

Sermons Empty of Gospel

Colleagues, The Lutheran School of Theology here in St. Louis [LST-STL] offered a 10-week course this fall quarter titled: “Preaching the Gospel.” Yours truly was the instructor. For 30 class hours fourteen of us wrestled with the topic, including such stuff as “how to tell when gospel is there and when it isn’t.” One of our mentoring …

Responses to ThTh #179 “Repentance and Apocalypse Now”

Colleagues, Three items of thankfulness on this USA Thanksgiving Day. Money matters. [That’s a subject and a verb.] Our Crossings Community thanks go to those of you who sent gifts when I mentioned our need a few weeks ago. There are still 99% of you on the listserve who haven’t (yet). These postings are free, as you …

Repentance and Apocalypse Now

Colleagues,September 11 fallout came closer to our home this week when one of our kids, the family breadwinner, e-mailed us: “Most all of the staff at [one of the foremost academic publishing houses] was notified today–out of a clear blue sky–that we’re being been laid off at the end of November. Company sales have gone into the tank …

Repentance is not Popular–Neither in our Nation, nor in our Church

Colleagues, First off this announcement from the Crossings office: This year’s St. Louis Advent Hymn Festival will be held Friday evening, December 7. Time: 7:30 pm. Place: Atonement Lutheran Church in Florissant, Missouri. The festival theme is “He Comes!….And Aren’t You Glad?” It will be in honor of Dr. Robert W. Bertram with Petter Nettling and Dawn …

The Conflict on Mission Theology in the ELCA

Colleagues,Last week’s posting, my proposal for a Lutheran mission theology, drew only two responses from you listserve receivers. Apparently my linking Luther’s law/promise hermeneutic to missiology came as no surprise–maybe even “ho-hum”–to you long-time and long-suffering ThTh receivers. But that wasn’t the case when I presented it live to the original audience in September. There it drew fire. …

Lutheran Theology for Mission

Colleagues, Three items. The Crossings bank balance is getting low. You know what to do. The address is: The Crossings Community, P.O.Box 7011. St. Louis MO 63006. USA. During the past month I’ve attended two conferences out of town. One was in Minnesota on the topic: “Thinking Theologically about Sexuality.” My presentations there are posted on the …