The Crossings Blog

Co-missioners, Last week we sent you the first half of an intriguing essay by Ron Roschke. Now comes the rest of it. It’s as meaty as the first portion was and will leave you with a lot to think about. We heartily encourage a quick review of last week’s Part One before you plunge in here. Peace …

Co-missioners, Most of you met Ron Roschke for the first time last November via a book review he wrote for Thursday Theology. You encountered him again last month through a thoughtful reflection on his experience of Seminex. Themes from both those contributions will come together this week and next as Ron uses his deep familiarity with current …

Co-missioners, Christ may be risen indeed, yet countless people for whom he died don’t believe this, nor will they in their lifetimes. All too many don’t know of Christ at all. What becomes of them when all is done? Dare we assume that God gives up on them? Christian thinkers have tussled with this question since the …

Co-missioners, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Much of the Church will hear Christ saying this again three days from now, on the Second Sunday of Easter. The day’s appointed Gospel is John 20:19-31. That this text gets read on Easter 2 in every year of the three-year lectionary cycle that lots of us …

Co-missioners, Assorted musings led me this week to an old Good Friday hymn that I recall from my childhood. Written by John Ellerton, a nineteenth-century Church of England cleric, it featured one of those first-line titles that tends to stick in a boy’s memory. “Throned Upon the Awful Tree”—thus Ellerton. The later editors of the Missouri Synod hymnal …

Co-missioners, This past February 20 featured one of the biggest gatherings yet for an online Crossings event. It was the second of two episodes in our Table Talk series devoted to the fiftieth anniversary of Seminex. Over twenty participants were asked to offer brief reflections on the following questions: What was Seminex really about, and why? How has …

Co-missioners, Today we set a new record for the shortest Thursday Theology post ever. It will also be one of the meatiest posts ever. That’s because we’re sending you some links to items on our website that we urge you to explore between now and next Thursday. It will involve more reading than we usually summon you to. …

Co-missioners, The Rev. Lori Cornell surprised us late last week with a submission for Thursday Theology. We can’t help but share it with you today, our first chance for doing so. That the work is pegged to the Gospel text for the Sunday after next is the lesser reason for the rush. The greater is to spread the …

Co-missioners, Consider this word, the one we’ve been greeting you with for the past six years: “co-missioners.” As in “fellow participants in the great, ongoing mission of the baptized.” As in people to whom the Instigator of that mission was also speaking on the first night of Easter when he said to his disciples, “As the Father has …

Co-missioners, Today’s quotable quote: “The Message makes the messenger.” You’ll find it in this timely reflection by one of last week’s authors, our interim text-study editor, Mike Hoy. Peace and Joy, The Crossings Community ______________________________________________________________________   A Baptismal Reflection on Psalm 90 by Michael Hoy   My brother and his spouse ordered a special gift for my birthday …