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Meditation on Psalm 93
We live in a world of uncertainty and instability. Alarm bells clang regarding climate change, with fears of rising sea levels as harbinger of impending ecological devastation. Wars in Afghanistan,...
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Sermo Dei: Trinity 12, 2014
Trinity 12 September 7, 2014 Baptism of Landon Robert Andrews Mark 7:31-37 When God made man, He did not make him defective. His ears were opened to the music of creation. His tongue, discovering...
View ArticleMeditation on Psalm 94
An appeal to the God of vengeance sounds exceedingly inconsistent with the Scriptures that present Jesus as bringer of shalom – peace. Yet that is how tonight’s psalm begins: “O Lord, God of vengeance,...
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Holy Cross 2014
As Adam lay dying, his son Seth went to the border of Eden. There he said to the angel guarding the way in, “My father is dying; give to me from the Tree of Life, that I may bring it as medicine to...
View ArticlePsalm 96: Sing to the Lord a new song!
Sing to the Lord a new song! A new song implies there are other, older songs. One suggestion is that the old song is the Song of Moses, which the children of Israel sang after crossing the Red Sea and...
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A Facebook Kind of Love? The Marriage of Rachel Horne and Daniel Wanke
Photo @beccagrawl 1 Corinthians 13:5 September 27, 2014 Social media is not evil. It simply magnifies the evil that is in the human heart. Status updates rarely reflect one’s real status. We appear...
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Sermo Dei: Trinity 15
Photo Lisa Larson-Walker (Slate.com) St. Matthew 6:24-34 September 28, 2014 Last Sunday in New York City thousands gathered for what was dubbed the People’s Climate March. Writing in the New Yorker,...
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Sermo Dei: Funeral of Robert L. Smith, Jr.
Philippians 3:7-14, 17-21; 4:1 October 3, 2014 Some years ago, at an anniversary party for Mr. and Mrs. Smith, a toast was offered: “To Smitty: the only man who can turn a short story into a novel.”...
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Sermo Dei: Trinity 16, 2014
Early Mosaic of St. Ambrose of Milan St. Luke 7:11-17: The Raising of the Widow of Nain’s Son October 5, 2014 On October 17, in the year 379, a man named Satyrus died. He had been a lawyer, and held...
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Sermo Dei: Trinity 17, 2014
When a man falls into a pit, you help him. That’s the Law. When a man falls into a pit, God helps him. That’s the Gospel. Jesus is at a dinner on the Sabbath, a day on which work was prohibited (Gospel...
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Sermo Dei: Reformation 2014
“What drunken German monk wrote these?” That was Pope Leo X’s response when he was shown a copy of Luther’s Ninety-five Theses, posted on the door of the Schloßkirche in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517....
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Sermo Dei: All Saints Sunday 2014
All Saints Day is November 1; at Immanuel we celebrate the festival on the first Sunday in November. It’s a day for martyrs. The term martyr is from martyria, Greek for witness; on special days, we...
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Sermo Dei: Trinity 22, 2014
The heart of Christianity is in forgiveness. This runs from God to us, and from us to our neighbor. But forgiveness is hard, even seeming impossible, so we want to set boundaries on our forgiveness...
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Sermo Dei: Last Sunday of the Church Year 2014
When you were baptized, the ceremony announced that you were in the company of the Ten Virgins from today’s gospel (Mt. 25:1-13): “Receive this burning torch and keep your Baptism blameless, so that...
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Advent Meditation: Waiting
Advent I Midweek Evening Prayer Isaiah 64:1-9: Waiting December 3, 2014 “The Advent season is a season of waiting. But our whole life is a season of Advent” (Bonhoeffer). “God … acts for those who...
View ArticleSermo Dei: Populus Zion (Advent II) 2014
“The insanity of the Christian doctrine of redemption really doesn’t fit at all into our time. Nevertheless there are learned, educated men, occupying high positions in public life, who cling to it...
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Sermo Dei: 125th Anniversary of St. Thomas Lutheran Church, Baltimore, MD
I’ve lost it now, but I had an incredible picture that I took from the upstairs back window at 2010 Christian St., where I lived in the summer of 1994 while serving as vicar here at St. Thomas. It...
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Sermo Dei: Gaudete 2014
The call of John the Baptist reverberates across the centuries, and still applies to us today: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Today’s Gospel reading has John in prison. Nevertheless,...
View ArticleMeditations on the O Antiphons for Advent
An annual tradition at Immanuel is a choral Evening Prayer service toward the end of Advent, featuring student and faculty choirs and instruments. This year, the central part of the service was the...
View ArticleThe Marriage of Rachel Rand and David Kent
David, last night your brother Dan told us about the time you had a week to grow out your hair while playing Jesus in a sixth-grade pageant. With this wedding, you get to resume that role. In your...
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