Colleagues, Peter Keyel’s name has appeared four times in ThTh postings during the calendar year now coming to a close. In some of those instances he’s authoring text for the ThTh posting that week. Google his name on Crossings’ internal search option if you want to learn more. His self-presentation in one of those postings goes like this: …
Two Different Gospels for The Night before Christmas –“Avatar” and the Mangered Messiah
Colleagues, Two of you readers–one Canadian, one Texan–keep me up-to-date with the New York Times. You sent me this week’s NYT review of “Avatar,” the blockbuster movie released “just in time for Christmas.” I haven’t seen the film, and from the review that follows I’m wondering: Is it such a superb proclamation of an “other gospel” that I’ve …
West Point Cadets, Obama’s Speeches and Jeremiah 33.
Colleagues, I asked for help last week to finish the six-step crossing task between the Jeremiah text we heard on the first Sunday in Advent (as laid before us in Steve Kuhl’s study of that text) and President Obama’s speech before the cadets at West Point Military Academy. Only two responses came back to me, one from Peter …
Further Conversation on “30,000 More Charioteers into the Red Sea?”
Colleagues, Last week’s ThTh post (599) concluded by asking for help from the listserve readership to finish out the six-step CROSSING phase of linking President Obama’s “30,000 more” speech and Steve’s Kuhl’s Biblical GROUNDING in the Gospel for Advent I. ThTh 599 had offered only the first three steps, the “bad news” crossovers between that Biblical text and …
30,000 More Charioteers into the Red Sea? “Finish the Job.” Whose Job? On Whom?
Colleagues, We need Biblical metaphors to talk about the US wars in the Middle East. Today’s Baghdad is only 50 miles away from Biblical Babylon, one on the Tigris, the other on the Euphrates, with only a skinny strip of land between the rivers, hence Meso(between)-potamia(the rivers). Needed are not just Biblical metaphors for the stage-setting, but for …
Primacy of Popes and the Promise. A Review of O’Malley’s “The History of the Popes”
Colleagues, This week’s ThTh posting is Steve Krueger’s review of a book just out on the papacy. As you readers know from past postings coming from Steve, he has become our community’s Augsburg Catholic “peritus” on the Roman Catholic church. [Peritus is the RC term for expert.] Here’s more of the same. Peace and joy! Ed Schroeder Primacy …
Sample Sermon on an Apocalyptic Text.
Colleagues, Ron Neustadt is pastor of St. Mark Lutheran congregation in Belleville, Illinois, just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri. At last week’s monthy gathering of our ELCA ministerial association, he was the proclaimer for our opening liturgy. His text was last Sunday’s apocalyptic Gospel from Mark 13. You’ve seen Ron’s name in ThTh posts before. …
79 is a Prime Number. Some Ramblings on Passing that Prime.
Colleagues, Rambling 79 is a prime number. Last week I passed that prime. Was it my last prime? The next prime number is 83. Bob Bertram, my theological mentor for 60 years, died just days before reaching 83. Many of my seminary classmates, significant others all of them–Walt Rast, Andy Weyermann, Walt Bouman–never got close to my prime …
Two New Books from Old Seminex Colleagues
Colleagues, Two for the price of one. No, not the books, but the review. And as long-time ThTh readers know, a straightforward “review” is seldom what you get in a ThTh book review. This one will likely be no exception. But instead of an extended debate with the author (and often lots of others) by this reviewer–as frequently …
“I held an umbrella . . . until we got through the resurrection.”
Colleagues, Now there’s a title for a sermon next Easter Sunday! No, that topic sentence was not written by a madman. It comes from Loren Bliese, telling us of his most recent mission out in the desert in Ethiopia. When you read it in his narrative below, it does make sense. Loren and Edith Bliese were mentors for …