Author: Administrador

Karoline Lewis “Your faith has saved you.” As one of my dear friends is fond of saying, “Put that on a t-shirt.” And, as we preachers are prone to asking, “will that preach?” A simple statement, yet extraordinarily complex. This has to be one of the most challenging of Jesus’ sayings. What is faith in … Continue reading “Your Faith Has Saved You”

Nathan Aaseng Does anyone else get uncomfortable proclaiming things like “How Great is Our God” or “Our God is an Awesome God” or “Behold Your God” or even “Now Thank We All Our God”? My problem is with the word “our.” What are we declaring when we modify the name “God” by adding that little … Continue reading “Whose God is This Anyway?”

Karoline Lewis This past week I taught the Core 1 course in Luther Seminary’s Doctor of Ministry in Biblical Preaching program. The Core 1 course is the first class the students take, “Preaching as the Word of God.” It was an exciting week! Nine students of all different denominations and varying years of preaching who … Continue reading “Naked No More”

Patricia Tull When pastors and Bible study participants seek a stronger ecological hermeneutic, I often challenge them simply to read Scripture with an eye to its many references to beyond-human elements of creation, their roles, and actions. The shift to thinking of the rest of the universe as part of the story, rather than simply … Continue reading “Reading Scripture with Creation”

Karoline Lewis When I started thinking about the DWP column for this week, my first response was, Sorry, Jesus. You are wrong. Sometimes we have to bury our dead and you are just going to have to wait. Sometimes we have to say goodbye to those we are leaving or to those we have lost, … Continue reading “Every Moment Counts”

Rachel Wrenn The title to this article is a riff on the 1997 book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. It’s the story, ultimately, of a culture clash that leads to a devastating missed opportunity. In the wake of Pentecost, I wonder how often this happens, in microcosms, in our daily lives: … Continue reading “The Spirit Catches You and You Run and Hide”

Karoline Lewis The mission of the seventy is no mission I could ever imagine accepting. It sounds more like orders received from central command on the series “Mission Impossible.” “Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet … Continue reading “The Security of Seventy”

Matt Gaventa Somewhere between the top shelf of Pixar masterpieces (Wall-E, The Incredibles, a few others, though of course opinions vary) and the dustbin of Pixar less-desirables (Cars and its progeny), history will file Finding Dory, the new sequel to 2003’s Finding Nemo. As cinematic narrative, it’s not transcendent. But what it lacks in artistic … Continue reading “Finding Dory, Finding Church”

Karoline Lewis The story of the Good Samaritan is rather remarkable. It has worked its way into our culture that even the unchurched will summon its principles so as to describe and determine a moral way of life. Yet, to “be a good Samaritan” is merely an occasion to define someone’s extraordinary act of assistance. … Continue reading “The Need for Nearness”

Nathan Aaseng While on vacation in the Canadian Maritime provinces and New England this past month, I saw two visions of the future church. One of these was bleak. On a Sunday morning, we passed church after church after church with empty parking lots, or maybe two or three cars. We attended one service where … Continue reading “Two Futures”