Today our scripture readings were sort of an embarrassment of riches, and on top of that, it's Trinity Sunday. What is a poor seminarian to do?
Epiphanal Moments
Epiphanal moments. I’ve always thought of them as good things, but epiphanies can cut both ways.
For unnamed women
There are SO many mothers of our faith, women whose theological insights, pastoral vocations, and wisdom just went right ahead and embodied preaching, even when they were forbidden from entering the pulpit themselves.
Sermon: Perfect Moments of Vehement Joy
Today it's about epiphany joy,: throw-your-cheese-doodles-in-the-air-and-sing-hallelujah joy.
Your feet were made for walking
What did I just read? The feet? How beautiful are the feet? Seriously? Can you picture this…a nation of people who are standing in exile, waiting in readiness for a message of redemption and restoration...and as the messenger opens her mouth to speak the words that people have waited so long to hear, all they can look at is…her feet?
Christ is King, and that’s the truth
Jesus doesn’t tell Pilate that he’s wrong. He doesn’t tell Pilate what he should do. Instead, he gives Pilate a choice where Pilate only sees a corner. Jesus gives us the same choice: do we name Jesus as King, or do we name something else?
Civil Wars and Second Temples
What battle are you fighting? What temple are you defending? What is it in your own life that you’ve poured yourself into, to the point that if it crumbled, you’d feel like your very self is ending? The question I’m asking is what St. Augustine called ordo amoris, the ordering of loves. The answer to this question, your battle, your temple, that is what lies at the heart of your spirituality.
Awesome Dialogical Sermon
I got to visit my fantastic friend Johanna up in Rochester a few weeks ago, and she invited me to preach at her two parishes! The week before I went up, sensing the near implosion of my head from work overload, she asked if I was still able to do it. I asked, "Can we do something together?" It turns out, we could!
On summer supply and being dragged to church
Most Sundays I would have been happier staying in my pajamas and watching cartoons, but Mom would harass me until I got out of bed, dressed reasonably, and crawled sulkily into the car. But now that I’m a little older, I’m grudgingly grateful that she and my dad were so faithful in my spiritual formation, because being dragged by my parents to church every week is the closest thing I can think of when I try to understand how God is dragging us to Jesus.
Jesus: Sarxy and he knows it
There are moments when knowing Greek makes the Word of God weird for me. Moments like the one I had with the gospel text this week, when I realized that “sarx” occurs six times in nine verses, with a form of “estheo” paired with it three times. Moments like the one when you realize that a sarcophagus isn’t just a cool Egyptian coffin. It’s what Jesus is calling his followers to be in today’s gospel.
LUTHERAN MOXIE 