Pray for America's safety forces, they stand between us and chaos. Pray that our leaders will have the political will to allow the police to do their jobs. Tonight two police officers from Louisville KY have been shot attempting to keep the peace there. This is evil, and only God himself can restore quiet. Let the churches return to their sanctuaries and offer formal and ...

Yesterday's gospel was the parable of the workers in the vineyard, Matthew 20:1-16 The parable is self-evident. By it the primitive church, comprised of Jews and Gentiles, learns that though the Jews were the First to be called into God's vineyard, the church, they should not despise the Gentiles who "stood in the marketplace idle" for centuries. But that both were now on...

Today the news is reporting thatGovernor DeWine of Ohio has signed a billthat bars any state of local government in Ohio from closing houses of worship because of a health emergency. If you don't know it already religious liberty is a great gift, one that many people have prayed for, sacrificed, suffered and died for. We must not take that lightly, for to do so would be...

Vast numbers of people have lost their mind today, and do not know it.Insanity is the norm, rational thought and measured actions the exception. But without recourse to reality it is not possible help the schizophrenic detect that his being Napoleon is an illusion. It seems as if the curse of Deuteronomy 28:28 is come true in our own day, "The LORD will strike thee with ...

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...