Author: Administrador

Karoline Lewis Dear Working Preachers, We know well the triad, “faith, hope, and love” that gloriously rounds out Paul’s chapter on Christian love in 1 Corinthians 13. We may not know as well, or perhaps never noticed, that Paul summons the same triad in his first letter to the Thessalonians, yet with a significant difference. … Continue reading “Having Hope”

Nathan Aaseng We are looking for you, Holy Spirit. We block off some time to spend with the lectionary text for this Sunday, looking for you. We search for you in and among the words. We close our eyes and invite you to fill our brains with your inspiration. We read what others have said … Continue reading “We Are Looking for You, Holy Spirit”

Karoline Lewis Dear Working Preachers, For some of you preachers out there, this Sunday is Reformation Sunday. But I also know that many users of this site will not preach on the Reformation texts. What is a “Dear Working Preacher” author to do? I decided to go in the direction of writing about reform, regardless … Continue reading “The Necessity of Re-Formation”

Patricia Tull The rapture is declining, according to Wheaton College’s Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals. The nineteenth-century notion that Christians will escape the planet before widespread tribulation heralds the world’s end — a notion popularized by John Darby and the Scofield Reference Bible, embraced by many churches and even U.S. presidents, and popularized … Continue reading ““Left Behind” Is Left Behind”

Karoline Lewis Festival Sundays are always tricky. If you are a regular listener of Sermon Brainwave, you know that our usual take on these celebrations is to preach the text and not the festival. What do we mean by that? No one wants to hear a sermon on the why or the how of a … Continue reading “When Tears are Wiped Away”

Karoline Lewis “Make haste to help me, Lord! Hasten to me, O God! Lord, do not delay!” The words of the Psalmist, in conversation with the Gospel and epistle lessons for this week, seem like just the right words of response. They seem like the kind of words that the disciples would have uttered after … Continue reading “How to Wait”

Kae Evensen Back in seminary, and when I teach preaching, we emphasized over and over again to our students the importance of taking time to prepare and craft a sermon for your people. We suggested reading the text well in advance, doing at least some Greek, studying commentaries and researching the hermeneutics, thinking of current … Continue reading “Betting on the Spirit”

Karoline Lewis “There is peace and security … ” (I Thess 5:3). Where? A week ago Thursday, at the same time as I was walking out the back door to head to Luther Seminary’s campus, my youngest son, twelve years old, having left for the bus only a few minutes before, bolted through the door, … Continue reading “Peace and Security”

Nathan Aaseng A few years ago the Domino’s Pizza company faced a grim reality. Sales were falling off dramatically. While this once-successful company lived in denial, they accelerated on the fast track toward death. Then somebody at Domino’s looked in the mirror. In an unusually candid bit of soul-searching, management saw what they had become: … Continue reading “The Domino’s Effect”

Karoline Lewis Here we are. The last Sunday of the church year, Christ the King/Reign of Christ Sunday. The year has gone by fast, hasn’t it? As I sat down to write this article, a new perspective crossed my mind — that Reign of Christ Sunday is the Sunday before Thanksgiving. What difference might this … Continue reading “Throne Mentality”