Thursday Theology

Co-missioners,  Firstly, we apologize for the delay in getting this post out. Holiday weeks will sometimes cause unforeseen interruptions!On this day observed by US-Americans as a Day of Thanksgiving, I give thanks for the gift that is the Crossings Community. Over …

Co-missioners,  Six weeks ago, a letter from bishops of ELCA synods began making the usual cyber-rounds by which such things get conveyed these days. The letter was about Christian Nationalism. The bishops quite rightly opposed it. Even so, today’s writer, Mike Hoy, asks questions about whether the letter, however well-intentioned it …

Co-missioners,  This week I offer a few of my own thoughts on the sort of language I hear myself and others using about the Holy Spirit, wondering out loud if we might not have gone a little bit too far in our confident declarations. I covet …

Co-missioners,  When Matt Metevelis was in high school his parents transferred to the congregation I was serving in a western suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. That’s when I met Matt. I got to watch him graduate from a top-flight Jesuit academy, scoot through a demanding college in …

Co-missioners,  This week’s post is a confessional position statement in a format reminiscent of the Barmen Declaration. Authored by Crossings folks Paul Theiss and Jim Squire (with input from many others) and since signed by many more (including yours truly), the …

Co-missioners,  Reformation is on my mind this week. Yours too, perhaps. It seems like an ideal time to make a pitch for the New Testament witness who, more than any other, shaped Luther’s grasp of the Gospel which in turn has …

Co-missioners,  This week’s contribution comes to us from the yellowed copies of a typewritten manuscript by Richard Caemmerer, recovered from the papers of Willard Burce, my co-editor’s late father — pastor, teacher, missionary, and a one-time student of Caemmerer’s at Concordia St Louis. What you’ll read below is …

 Co-missioners, Bruce Modahl, our newsletter editor, reviews a book for us today.  Peace and Joy, The Crossings Community ___________________________________________________________________ A Review of Thomas G. Long’s Proclaiming the Parables: Preaching and Teaching the Kingdom of God (Published March 12, 2024 by Westminster John Knox Press; 460 pages) by …

 Co-missioners,This coming Sunday, pew-sitters and preachers in lectionary-hearing congregations may hear something a little unfamiliar in the language of the Old Testament reading assigned for this day. In the NRSVUE translation, the revision of the NRSV which has been newly …

 Co-missioners,  Bishop Elizabeth Eaton retired last month. I can’t help but pass along an appreciation of her this week. I have fretted a lot about the ELCA in recent years. I’ll fret all the more now that she isn’t there. “Stop …