Blog - Scripture

“…our thoughts and prayers are not enough.  It’s not enough.”

A few months back, which was several years later than it should have been, I stumbled on poetry by Billy Collins.

On this occasion of the 70th Holocaust Remembrance Day, the following is a reworking of some thoughts I’ve offered in presentations over the last several months.

This year’s Advent launches us into the “Year of Mark,” the period when the primary gospel readings come from, well, Mark, obviously.

Persistently needy, glommy people, people who must satiate their need for affirmation by demanding to be in the limelight, are children of God.

So, poverty is in the news here in South Dakota.

Daughter Else asks magnificent questions.

Wally Taylor teaches New Testament at (the truly outstanding) Trinity Lutheran Seminary, in the fair city of Columbus, Ohio.

Dear all,

“We pray for the Holy Spirit to come, and then, when she does, we want her to go home!”

Within days, our eyes and ears and minds and hearts have drawn in far too much smoke and fire and blood and weeping.

This blog will be laced with obscenities.

So rumor had it, when I was young and svelte, that when a person ages, their metabolism slows down, and they gain weight more easily, and it takes a lot longer to work it off.

A week ago or so a pastor friend of mine posted this text from Psalm 23, verse 6, on her Facebook page: “Your beauty and love chase after me everyday of my life.”

Below is the text of August 12th’s sermon for Springdale Lutheran.  The texts are below the sermon, and were captured at http://bible.oremus.org.

This blog is a posted version of the sermon I preached this morning at Springdale Lutheran, and in light of the events in Colorado, and in light of the day-to-day lives of so many  suffering sisters and brothers in the world.

The below appeared in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader newspaper today.  I’m reposting it here, because it’s a Holy Saturday-ish set of musings.

As much as I have recently made a case for Advent, and then for Christmas, you might have expected that I would write something about the season of Epiphany, now over a week past.

I am decorating for Advent.

Except when it doesn’t.