Pastoral Meanderings

When we are finished tearing down the statues of our flawed leaders, who will be left to replace them?  When we are done with the litmus t...

There are those who might suggest that the internet is the biggest and baddest invention in history.  I am not so sure.  Surely the printi...

When we no longer share common values, we will end up leaving it to the lawyers and courts to decide who is responsible.  When we no longe...

I read this the other day. “The primary means of theological education in the Orthodox Church is through worship.” from Archbishop (ret.)...

I was reading a piece that suggested that the world changed when music ceased to be live and was experienced mostly through recordings.  I h...

There are religious overtones to the recent protests in the wake of George Floyd's murder that are not easy to talk about.  I am not t...

Article 13 of the Apology of the Augsburg Confession says,“If ordination is understood as carrying out the ministry of the ...

On March 22 of this year, as the corona virus pandemic was ramping up and churches were ramping down, I preached at the ordination and ins...

Sermon for Trinity 5, preached on Thursday, July 9, 2020. Last Sunday we heard the gentle call of Jesus “come to Me and I will give you...

Nearly everyone on every theological side there can be presumes that Jesus came to reveal God to us – even those who do not believe Jesus ...

What do you do when satire is no longer satire but the truth that convicts?

Today would have been my parents 70th wedding anniversary.  My dad died five years ago and my mother celebrated her 90th birthday a few we...

Pietism is movement that began within Lutheranism that combines its conservative view of Biblical doctrine with an individualistic focus ...

  Sermon for Pentecost 5, Proper 9A, preached on Sunday, July 5, 2020.     It is a holiday weekend and America uses holidays for just a...

There are those who have suggested that this pandemic may have been a good thing.  They suggest that it has forced churches to get out of ...

Forty years ago today on what was perhaps the hottest Sunday in July in Nebraska, I was ordained.  It was in the church where I was baptiz...

Apparently the politicians have decided that there is little risk in bullying churches.  Perhaps they are right.  It does not seem that c...

While the focus has certainly been on those who abuse their authority as agents who serve to protect and defend, we should not forget thos...

There have been those who suggested that lunacy is the rejection of reason and logic.  I wonder if it is the exact opposite.  Could it be ...