Mega-Fear, Mega-Joy

Colleagues, Bill Yancey, our pastor at Bethel Lutheran Church, St. Louis, asked me to supply the homily for Christmas Day in the morning. Two homilies on the evening before, he said, prompted him to send in a sub for this morning. Here’s what I prepared. Give or take, this is what was proclaimed. The assigned lectionary text is …

Abraham’s Paradoxical God — God Most High and God Most Low(ly) [An offering from Frederick Niedner]

Colleagues, As most of the Thursday Theology Tribe knows, several dozen members of the related Crossings Community gathered for a Second International Conference back in October 2008. The First International Conference (January 2007) had pondered the theme, “Honest-to-God Gospel for Today’s Church and World: Why Luther’s distinction of Law and Gospel matters more than ever.” This latest conference …

Advent and Apocalypse in America–a Triad for Crossing.

Colleagues, Funny thing happened in California last week. Marie and I were there for Thanksgiving at my sister’s home in Ukiah, 100 miles north of San Francisco. We were using up our remaining Frequent Flyer Miles before they expired. These miles we’d chalked up from our last Global Mission Volunteer junket (2004) when we flew across the Pacific …

A Lutheran “Op-ed” for Bible Reading in the ELCA, Part IV

Colleagues, Today’s ThTh #546 is Part IV, the last batch of Werner Elert’s theses on Lutheran hermeneutics for reading the Bible. Prior postings #543, 544, 545 gave you the specs on where they came from. Here’s the last set of “Feste Sätze” (solid sentences) from Elert’s Chapter Two: “The What and How of God’s Revelation.” Peace and joy! …

A Lutheran “Op-ed” for Bible Reading in the ELCA, Part III

Colleagues, Today’s ThTh #545 is Part III of a four-part presentation of Werner Elert’s theses on Lutheran hermeneutics for reading the Bible. It is offered as an op-ed alternative to “Opening the Book of Faith” recently published to encourage Bible reading and study in the ELCA. These theses come from Elert’s lectures on “The Christian Faith” (aka dogmatics) …

An “Op-ed” for Bible Reading in the ELCA, Part II

Colleagues, Today’s ThTh #544 is a continuation of an op-ed alternative to “Opening the Book of Faith” recently published to encourage Bible reading and study in the ELCA. A number of you said “more” when I asked last week if I should continue passing on to you Werner Elert’s “Feste Sätze” [thesis sentences] about the Bible. These theses …

Bible Reading in the ELCA

Colleagues, On this date in the year 1930 I took my first breath of fresh air. “Farm fresh” that breath was, for I was born in the farmhouse where my Mom and Dad had started their married life the year before. The first birthday of the Great Depression had just passed. But I didn’t know that. Fact is, …

Christian Buddhists? A Tale from Thailand [Part II]

[This is the second installment–the last of three letters–from Ken Dobson in Thailand. For biographical info on Ken, see last week’s posting: https://crossings.org/thursday/2008/thur102308.shtml] Dobson 3 A Compelling Reason to Chant Let’s be frank, it is obvious that what Buddhists do and what they intend to do is to worship and elevate the Buddha into the highest rank of veneration. …

Christian Buddhists? A Tale from Thailand [Part I]

Colleagues, [Pre-script: You shoulduv been there. At the Crossings conference–Monday-to-Wednesday this week–just concluded. Almost too much of a High for this old man. 75 folks showed up. From far away Singapore, Indonesia and Australia (one each), and from closer (?) to home: Alaska, California, Oregon, Washington states on the Pacific rim and New York, South Carolina on the …