Colleagues, Here’s an item from the CORE folks, major critics of the ELCA’s slippery slide into anti-nomianism [= disregard for God’s law], that calls for comment–and correction, I think. At one of their web-sites http://lutheranspersisting.wordpress.com/david-yeago-facing-reality-in-the-elca we read this: “There is a Reformation slogan that sums up the impossibility [of the ELCA’s position] here: ‘What the law demands, the gospel bestows.’ …
A Book About Forgiveness
Colleagues, In this week’s ThTh post Marie Schroeder reviews a book about forgiveness. The author, Karl Boehmke, is a member of our Bethel Lutheran congregation here in St. Louis. The first draft of the manuscript was grist for the mill in our Sunday morning Adult Forum discussions. This is a pre-publication review. The book is officially “out” on …
Surprising Things Happen! A Quartet of Surprises at Mid-Lent 2010
Colleagues, “Surprising things happen!” That was our pastor’s refrain in his midweek Lenten homily last evening. He claimed that he got it from the OT reading for this past Sunday, Isaiah 55:1-9. Here the prophet reports on God’s own call to his depressed, repressed, and suppressed exiles in Babylon to come to a banquet. In the midst of …
Part Two of “Werner Elert and Moral Decay in the ELCA!”
Colleagues, Here are some response that have come in after last week’s Part One on the topic above. ELCA pastorI read Root’s piece [in the blog] and some of the responses to it earlier this week, and my sneaking suspicion is that Root is headed to where the Roman Catholics have always been regarding the Reformation “aha” (including, …
Werner Elert and Moral Decay in the ELCA!
Colleagues, The last thing I could ever have expected–the one thing I could NEVER EVER have imagined–is that Werner Elert, a German theologian who died in 1954 and who never set foot in the USA, let alone taught anywhere in Lutheran schools here, could be exposed “in these last days” as a major source for the current moral …
“Is Anybody Out There Listening?” Part Two
Colleagues, A number of responses came in on last week’s ThTh post. Here are four of them. Peace and Joy! Ed Schroeder From Ron Neustadt, pastor, St. Mark Lutheran Church, Belleville, IllinoisIs anybody listening? Something that just occurred to me: the type of fishing that Peter, James, and John practiced did not involve bait, as far as I …
Is Anybody Out There Listening? Or Even Interested Enough to Want to Listen?
Colleagues, At the Crossings conference a fortnight ago, the final session was small groups doing roundtable talk at lunch. We were to address the question, “Does anybody, much less everybody, out there really need to hear our good news?” Timothy Hoyer, pastor at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, Lakewood, New York, a conference participant, sent me his further reflection …
A Report on Crossings International Conference III, January 25-27, 2010
Colleagues, For this week’s ThTh post Crossings President Steven Kuhl reports on last week’s get-together here in St. Louis. Peace and Joy! Ed Schroeder God’s Promise, Our Mission: A Post-Conference Review Last week 101 members of the Crossings Community gathered for the Third International Crossings Conference at Our Lady of the Snows Conference Center and Shrine in Belleville, …
Werner Elert’s Law/Gospel Textbook on Christian Ethics (Part II–Conclusion)
Colleagues, Here’s the second half of my offering at the Crossings International conference earlier this week. And “international” it was indeed with participants from Korea, Nigeria, Liberia, India, Singapore and Germany. The gathering was mountaintop stuff. More next Thrusday. A bunch of us spent most of one day looking at the theology of Werner Elert (1885-1954). Bob Schultz, …
“Missio Shaped by Promissio: Luth Missiology Confronts the Challenge of Religious Pluralism”
Crossings Conference, Belleville, IL- 1/26/10 Rev. Jukka Kaariainen Not all words are created equal. Some are more important than others. The Christian tradition gives us a rich vocabulary, words such as: salvation, reconciliation, faith, promise, law, Gospel, covenant, sin, grace, mission, and witness, to name but a few. In considering the specific topic the Church’s “mission,” mission …