The Christmas Gospel according to St. John.

Colleagues, I was asked to preach on Christmas Day at our congregation, Bethel Lutheran in suburban St. Louis. Which I did do. What follows is not exactly the homily, but some ramblings occasioned before, during(?) and after the fact. There is no verb in the Greek NT for “preach.” The two main Greek verbs that often get translated …

Angels for Advent, and Christmas too–The Message Makes the Messenger.

Colleagues, I had hoped for my spouse to do the text on this year’s pre-Christmas posting for ThTh. But then Mike Hoy, editor of the Crossings newsletter, gave Marie a better offer and published it already as the December 2007 Crossings Newsletter. It’s already on the website: <www.crossings.org> “Crossings Newsletters. Christmas 2007.” GO and see. Once you …

When You Need to be Healed, You’re a Mission Field

Colleagues Back in October–six postings ago–a “Mission Festival” sermon was sent your way. It was originally preached where Robin Morgan is pastor in Washington, Missouri, an hour’s drive west of St. Louis. The Sunday thereafter I was asked to “do likewise” in the opposite direction, east across the Mississippi River with two rural congregations in southern Illinois. …

Arthur Carl Piepkorn. A book-review. Part II.

THE SACRED SCRIPTURES AND THE LUTHERAN CONFESSIONS. SELECTED WRITINGS OF ARTHUR CARL PIEPKORN, Ed. Philip J. Secker. Mansfield, Connecticut: CEC Press. 2007. Paper. $21.95 [To order GO to <www.lutheransonline.com/piepkorn>] [Here’s the final paragraph segue from last week’s Part I: The BBSW bunch (=Bertram, Bouman, Schroeder, Weyermann in the department of systematic theology at Concordia Seminary) wanted to go …

Arthur Carl Piepkorn

Colleagues, Today another book review. Before I could stop, it got a bit long. Too much for a single ThTh post, I think. So part 2 comes next week.Peace and joy! Ed Schroeder THE SACRED SCRIPTURES AND THE LUTHERAN CONFESSIONS. SELECTED WRITINGS OF ARTHUR CARL PIEPKORN, Ed. Philip J. Secker. Mansfield, Connecticut: CTC Press. 2007. Paper. $21.95 …

“Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light” – A Book Review

Colleagues, This week’s Thursday Theologian is Pastor Stephen C. Krueger, Seminex grad, LCMS rostered pastor, now serving as hospice chaplain in Florida. Steve’s world of daily work is LifePath Hospice and Palliative Care, the largest not-for-profit hospice program in the United States. LifePath Hospice currently serves over 2,000 patients in the area of Tampa.Steve was the first …

Luther as Mission Theologian — 9.5 Theses

Colleagues, This past Monday October 31, the designated day for Reformation Remembrance, a group of Lutheran pastors in the neighborhood–both LCMS an ELCA–asked me speak (for only 20 minutes!) at their lunch gathering. The topic was “Luther as Mission Theologian.” I concocted nine-point-five theses for the occasion, here passed on to you with a bit of comment. …

DOES CHRISTIAN MISSION DO MORE HARM THAN GOOD?

Colleagues, When Marie and I set out on our last ELCA Global Mission Volunteer adventure (2004), we stopped over in Hong Kong for a spell before heading to our workplace in Singapore. We visited the Lutheran Theological Seminary there atop Tao Fong Shan [tao=way/word; fong=wind/spirit; shan=mountain. So, in its Christian meaning: Mountain of the Word and the …