- Addressing White Supremacy in the Church
Co-missioners, Here is one of several reasons for spending time with today’s offering: it will likely be the first time you’ve ever seen Luther’s “Heidelberg Disputation” marshalled as a resource for addressing the hot-button issue of white supremacy as a stubborn feature of American life, and of American church life in particular. Along the way ...
- Caught to be Catchers
Co-missioners, We’re in the middle of Lent today, yet we bring you a reflection on the Gospel for the Third Sunday after Epiphany. Steve Kuhl sent it our way toward the end of January when the pipeline was still choked with ruminations on the events of January 6. As it happens, Steve’s piece is the ...
- God-Fearing, God-Praising: A Crossings-style Devotion
Co-missioners, The item we send you this week is uncharacteristically brief. It’s also plain, as down-to-earth ordinary as ordinary gets. It doesn’t sound at all like “theology.” We think it’s worth your attention anyway. Our editor calls it the finest example he’s seen of Crossings theology encapsulated in a 250-word devotion. For more on this, ...
- Mission in the Gospel of Mark
Co-missioners, Our mission correspondent, Richard Gahl, returns this week with a quick missiocentric tour of the Gospel of Mark, the one that those of us who follow the Revised Common Lectionary are hearing from at church this year. Peace and Joy, The Crossings Community Mission in the Gospel of Mark by Richard Gahl In previous ...
- The Benefits of Christ for a Fractured America (Initial Thoughts)
Co-missioners, This is the fifth and final installment in a sequence of posts addressing the riot in Washington D.C. on January 6. An unintended sequence, we add. One post led to the other which led to the next, all with little or no planning along the way. We babbled, as it were—so much to be ...
- In the Aftermath of the Riot: Four “I” Words and a Word of Hope
Co-missioners, Come Saturday it will be a month since we saw the images streaming from Washington, D.C. of things we never imagined taking place in the United States of America. The event has unleashed a Noah’s flood of commentary and reflection, of which our last three posts have been the merest drop. Turns out we ...
- Angela Denker’s “Red State Christians.” A Review
Co-missioners, At the end of last week’s post our editor, Jerry Burce, promised a third installment of some unfolding reflections arising from the Capitol riot of January 6 and responses thereto. What comes your way instead this week is an interlude of sorts—more grist for that third grinding, as Jerry wants to put it. A ...
- A Sermon in the Wake of the Capitol Riot
Co-missioners,
This is Part II of what seems to be evolving into a three-part series by our editor on the tumult of January 6. We pray you find it of use.
Peace and Joy,
The Crossings Community
A Sermon in the Wake of the Capitol Riot
by Jerome Burce
Preface
“Yes, there is Gospel sufficient to our terrible American day. The challenge ...
- First Thoughts on the Sack of the Capitol
Co-missioners,
We pass along the first part of an unfolding reflection by our editor.
Peace and Joy,
The Crossings Community
First Thoughts on the Sack of the Capitol
by Jerome Burce
The last thing anyone can need or want today is another loud and lengthy fulmination about the wickedness that unfolded in Washington D.C. a week ago. Even worse would be ...
- On Repentance and New Year’s Resolutions
Co-missioners,
We are either a week or a day late with this post, depending on the item that grabs your eye. The day-late item is a prod to take a look—or another look—at Ed Schroeder’s “Take the Jerusalem Bypass.” Call it a sermon. Alternatively, call it an exercise in Law/Gospel theology at the ground-floor level of ...