The Crossings Blog

Thursday Theology -full listing Crossings Film Series
  • In Ed-ifying Memory
    Co-missioners, June 1 is one month minus a day from now. That leaves anyone interested with enough time to arrange a trip to St. Louis at reasonable expense for a one-of-a-kind Crossings event at Christ Lutheran Church in Webster Groves. We plan that day—again, Saturday, June 1—to thank God once more for the gift of Edward H. ...
  • Faith as Evidence of the Resurrection: A Theme in St. John’s Easter Account
    Co-missioners, Our gift for this first week of Easter is a gem of insight from Steve Kuhl into St. John’s account of Easter morning. It offers a splendid starting point for further listening, thinking, and praying as we grapple in coming Easter weeks with our daily vocation as witnesses to the resurrection of our Lord Jesus ...
  • Looking at the Passion through the Wrong End of Exodus, and Other Notes for Holy Week
    Co-missioners, On this Maundy Thursday we send along a few items for your devotional reflection on the mission of Christ Crucified and your role as one his cross-bearing agents. Peace and Joy, The Crossing Community Looking at the Passion through the Wrong End of Exodus, and Other Notes for Holy Week by Jerome Burce The wrong end of Exodus, the Bible’s ...
  • Anticipating Easter: A Sermon on Luke 24
    Co-missioners, We are jumping the gun this week in the race toward Easter. Among you are some who are groping for thoughts on what you’ll say from a pulpit that morning. You might find something here that will clarify the murk and point you down a path. All of us, regardless of vocation, are commissioned in ...
  • A Surprising Paucity of “Forgiveness”
    Colleagues, Today your editor, Jerome Burce, sends along an item that snagged his eye recently. He hopes it will sharpen other eyes over the next few weeks of late Lent and early Easter. In case you missed the note our executive directors dispatched this past Tuesday, we pass along news of a gathering in St. Louis on ...
  • Where is God When Disaster Strikes?
    Co-Missioners, Our news-feeds this month have delivered accounts and photos of tornadoes ripping through Alabama, and of terrible floods in southern Africa and the great plains of North America. The losses were enormous. We might also describe them as unspeakable were we not so used to speaking of such things, so often do they happen. Today ...
  • The Gospel at E. 93rd and Kinsman
    Co-Missioners, Today’s writer is Margaret M. Schauer, Ph.D., of Fairview Park, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. Most of us who know Peggy—so she invites people to call her—first met her at the Crossings Conference of 2018, where she stunned the audience with a brief report on her work as a Christ-conscious urban educator. Bruce Modahl summarized ...
  • Why I Detest the Expression “People of Faith”
    Co-Missioners, Today’s piece comes from your editor, who freely admits that he’s having some fun with a serious rant. Enjoy where you can. Grimace where you must. Peace and Joy,The Crossing Community Why I Detest the Expression “People of Faith” By Jerome Burce I blame Rex Stout for the tic of verbal snobbery that serves with so much else to ...
  • Giving Thanks for Ed Schroeder (Repost of “The Care and Redemption of God’s Creation”)
    Co-Missioners, Some 240 people gathered in St. Louis yesterday for Ed Schroeder’s funeral. It took place at Ed’s and spouse Marie’s home congregation for almost half a century, Bethel Lutheran Church in University Heights. The Rev. Dr. William Yancey, their pastor for most of this time, preached and presided. Jerry Burce, current president of our board ...
  • “Will No One Have the Guts to be a Sinner?” (Part 1)
    Co-Missioners, This is another offering from your editor, Jerome Burce. In passing it along he observes that it’s been a long time in gestation, and is still a work in progress. A prelude of sorts appeared three and a half years ago in Thursday Theology. It introduced and accounted for the essay’s brusque title. That the ...