Something has been troubling me since Thursday night's tragedy, I could not put my finger on it till this morning. This scene, as all others, was indescribably tragic: the sights, sounds, howls and whimpers of disconsolate grief. But what made itsurreal compared to all the others in which I've served was, in a word, masks. Everyone (except yours truly) wore one. It took ...

Late last evening I received a call from the head chaplain for the city of Cleveland safety forces, Rabbi Sruly Wolf, a good friend. He was all business when I answered and I knew something bad had happened. At the same time I received a text from Cleveland Fire indicating that Engine 23 had responded to the scene where a CPD officer, and CI had been killed while conductin...

Psalm 32, appointed for next Sunday, is near and dear to the hearts of Lutherans. The opening versicles of Lutheran liturgy come from verse 5: I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD," and you forgave the iniquity of my sins. The church's message is a spiritual one, the forgiveness of sins before God, for the sake of Christ who suffered and died to atone f...

The Introit (entrance) is an ancient remnant of liturgy. As the congregation awaited the arrival of the clergy it would chant Psalms, usually many of them. In our day the Introit is reduced to just one Psalm, a portion of it, or sometimes a combination of two psalms. (On rare occasion a New Testament verse or prophet). The Psalm is chanted "antiphonally". That means back ...

This quote from Bushur's book leads us back to the reservation of right Scriptural interpretation: "The body of Jesus as narrated in the Gospels anchors the church's reading of prophetic texts and apostolic epistles. However, the stability provided by the flesh of Christ for the church's reading of scripture does not necessarily produce a monolithic or predictable exegesi...

Fundamentalism, be it religious or political, is hazardous to your health. Pasadena California assistant prosecutor Michael Dowd is such a fundamentalist, and enemy of the church of Jesus Christ. A fundamentalist is a person who can only operate within the most narrow of boundries for fear of losing everything that is important to them. The 2020 flu epidemic has expos...

The four gospels should not be thought of or treated as literary documents, but as the presence of Christ among his people. They are the verbal icon of Christ. They are the church's prayer, the church's liturgy, the church's story and her participation in the mysteries of Christ. They are the "power of God unto salvation to all who believe " (Romans 1:16). They are a sacr...

You should know, Gentle Reader, that I have resisted writing on this subject for fear of scorching the ecclesiastical earth. But today I received an emailfrom a company that sells and installs live streaming equipment in churches. The email is entitled: Top Three Reasons To Live Stream Worship. When this pandemic invaded the earth in March of 2020 no one was prepared, lea...

The 138th Psalm, assigned for the 12th Sunday after Pentecost in Series A, makes a perfect prayer for today. The fear of coronavirus has invaded the world, as surely as if space aliens had landed. Never before, except at the Flood and Tower of Babel, was there world-wide dismay and distress. Never before has such panic been induced by those whose vocation it is to make peo...

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9 ...