The Crossings Blog

Colleagues, I learned early this morning that a pathophobic phillumenist is a matchbook collector who is scared to death of getting sick. While I can’t suppose the rest of you were aching to know this too, still, there it is. The source of this revelation was the daily note I get from Anu Garg’s team at wordsmith.org. ...

Colleagues, I have opined a few times, most recently three weeks ago, that I find ungodliness ensconced in the Oval Office these days. On each occasion I’ve gotten a rebuking counter-response from one or more readers. Hence this bit of essential introduction: Our vocation as citizens with opinions to vent and votes to cast entails a peril ...

Colleagues, A week ago yesterday I trotted a class through the Book of Revelation in an hour and a half. I felt like an insect must when it tries to comprehend a ten-acre pond by touching down on the surface in a few places here and there. May it be that the folks in attendance went ...

Colleagues, This is a continuation of the item you received a week ago, in which Matt Becker laid out an argument between Crossings’ own Robert W. Bertram and another Lutheran theologian, Ronald F. Thiemann, a former Dean of Harvard of Divinity School. As Matt pointed out (and will do so again as you continue reading), this ...

Colleagues, Pentecost is upon us. Would that preachers everywhere might catch and transmit the Pentecost point this Sunday, but many won’t. The essential gift of the Spirit is not that we do the right stuff but that we trust the Right Doer. First faith, then works, to use some older language. The Right Doer, of course, ...

Colleagues, Here is the second half of Matthew Becker’s paper on Werner Elert that some of us heard at the Crossings conference in January. It calls for the closest reading you can give it; and if, like me, you keep a stash of essential “must-keep” theological essays for future reference and sharing, you’ll want to add ...

Colleagues, Dr. Matthew Becker of Valparaiso University was one of three core presenters at our Crossings conference last January. The theme, arising from Romans 1:16-17, was “The Power of the Gospel for Times Like These.” To further focus our thinking, we prepended that title with “Up Weak Knees,” a line borrowed from the English translation of ...

Colleagues, We’re not quite two weeks into the 2018 Easter season, and again I’m noticing a phenomenon that impresses me more and more as I speed toward retirement in a few years. There is no such thing as milking an Easter text dry. No matter how often a preacher picks it up to shake and squeeze ...

Colleagues, I get together every three weeks or so with a group of pastors, some active, some retired, to explore the texts for forthcoming Sundays. We’re due to meet next Monday to get a jump on Easter. I volunteered to tackle the Easter Festival texts. Earlier today I rummaged through my files and unearthed some work ...

Colleagues, Here is the second part of the paper that launched the 2018 Crossings conference at the end of last month. Two weeks have gone by since I sent you the first part. When introducing that I encouraged you to mull on the coincidence of Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day on February 14. Love’s day arrived, and hate ...