The Culture is at a loss! It can't explain why Stephen Paddock did what he did. But the church can. Even if there were an ideological motive it still would not get at the heart of the matter, which is the heart of man! In the words of the prophet Jeremiah, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9) Or in the ...

It seems today that nearly all couples who present themselves to the pastor for marriage are already living together. Many have children of their own and/or from a previous marriage or relationship. They are often paying their bills together, and own property in common. What I say below I address first to the members of my own parish because they are my responsibility. Bu...

A few days ago I wrote a post about the Las Vegas massacre, but I'd like to say more. From what I can tell this villainous crime, on par with 9/11 and Sandy Hook, has taken its toll on our people. It should not surprise us to find that we are suffering to some degree from "critical incident stress" and/or "post traumatic stress." But alas I am a pastor and not a psycholo...

Christians don't only need faith, they also need knowledge. In that spirit I include below two paragraphs from Tertullian, one of the most important early church fathers of our faith. You may need to read through this more than once to get it, but the dividends will be worth it. Tertullian was born c. 155, /160, in Carthage (now in Tunisia) and died after 220 in Carthage....

What is the Bible? How should we think about it, and how should we employ it? Some people think of the Bible as great literature. They are not wrong, but Scripture is far more than that. Others think of it as their personal devotional book. But that is like considering the ocean to be your own private swimming pool. Protestants, at least traditionally, conceive of the Bib...

My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say, "Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us ambush the innocent without reason; like Sheol let us swallow them alive, and whole, like those who go down to the pit" ... my son, do not walk in the way with them; hold back your foot from their paths, for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blo...

We learn in Genesis 2:16 that "it is not good for the man to be alone." For all the splendor that Adam enjoyed as one created in the very image of his God and Father, he was still not complete. "Not good" in Biblical parlance until God completed him by making, "the right kind of helper" for him. By making woman. But nor is it good for the woman to be alone. Women have pr...

Why does the celebrant elevate the host, and then the cup, following the consecration of each of these elements? By this gesture the church means to show that she is offering Christ to God. Offering his body and his blood as atonement for our sins. Not in the old Roman Catholic sense wherein Christ is sacrificed anew at each Eucharist for Scripture says, "We know that Chr...

Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith. Which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled; without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. And the catholic faith is this:...

No Lutheran would ever think of praying the rosary, but many have been taught that Exodus 20:4 probibits the church from creating sacred images. Both of those theologies are equally foreign to the Lutheran faith. As surely as we don't pray to Mary; we don't refrain from making sacred art.As I explained in yesterday's sermon it is because "the Word was made flesh." (John 1:...