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 Michigan that still emphasized the classics and then proceed …

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 statement seeks to present a response from an “evangelical” …

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 shaped so many of us.  Peace and Joy, Jerry Burce, …

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 one section (number 7 out of 8) from a …

  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 Bruce K Modahl  …

  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 recommended by Augsburg Fortress publications like Sundays and …

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 it,” she would say.    Bishop Eaton’s was and is …

  Co-missioners,   Our brother Peter Keyel’s piece last week—America’s Political Divide and the Wrath of God—sparked strong reactions from some of our regular readers. We the editors are very grateful for this feedback, as it may lead all of us into a deeper conversation.   In particular, the way Brother Keyel …

Sola Scriptura: The Book that Reads You By Rev. Dr. Bruce K. Modahl  The metal sculpture pictured here depicts the Bible as the book that reads us. Each of the 49 pages in the sculpture is imprinted not with words but with eyes. The eyes seem ominous in my viewing. …

  Co-missioners,  Peter Keyel, a professor in the biological sciences department at Texas Tech University, is a longtime contributor to our work at Crossings. He has written now and then for Thursday Theology, most recently in August of last year. His was one of three reflections featured in a piece …

  What I Learned from Talking with Kids About Sin By Carol Braun Sin was on my mind this summer.  In the sticky heat of mid-July, in a beautiful, lofty, sweltering old fellowship hall illumined by a stained-glass rose window, I sweated my way through leading my small parish’s Vacation …

Co-missioners,  Last week Mike Hoy gave us a brief though closely documented account of ongoing efforts by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) to reshape its ethnic and racial configuration.   And no wonder the effort is being made. From the moment it began operations on January 1, 1988, the …

Co-missioners,  Crossings, a pan-Lutheran community, has always contained within itself a range of viewpoints on matters political, ethical, and ecclesiological. We think that’s a good thing! The love of the Gospel has a way of bringing people together across seemingly insurmountable gulfs of opinion and identity. In Jesus Christ we …

Co-missioners,  Today I follow on the heels of my new editorial colleague, Robin Lütjohann, with some introductory remarks about the second part of an important essay by Kurt Hendel.   Kurt was one of my teachers fifty years ago at Christ Seminary—Seminex. Church history was his specialty. When Seminex disbanded, he …

Co-missioners,  As our beloved editor, and now my co-editor, Jerry Burce announced last week, starting with today I get to help him carry the torch of the Thursday Theology tradition. What an honor! In keeping with existing patterns, this involves receiving and sharing contributions from others (you perhaps?) and, on …

Co-missioners,  Our editor has thoughts to share and an announcement to make.  Peace and Joy, The Crossings Community   _______________________________________________________  Back to the Basics  by Jerome Burce  I returned to my roots this week. I mean “roots” as in theological roots, which lie for me in the Lutheran confessions on the …

Co-missioners,  We’re in the middle of peak wedding season in the U.S. This runs from May through October with spikes of activity in June and September. So Google says, at any rate. Lots of pastors would confirm this. One such pastor is our colleague, Steve Kuhl, who devoted the final …

Co-missioners,  Last week Gary Simpson told the story of Wolfhart Pannenberg’s emergence as a major theologian in the final third of the twentieth century. Today he points to some key features of Pannenberg’s thought. Peace and Joy, The Crossings Community   _______________________________________________________  Introducing Wolfhart Pannenberg (Part 2)  by Gary M. Simpson …

Co-missioners,   Gary Simpson is one of the handful of star Seminex students who went on to carve out careers as teaching theologians. Gary, now retired, spent the bulk of his working years in the systematics department at Luther Seminary. One of us asked him recently to reflect on a theologian …

Co-missioners,  Our editor had trouble getting his post for June 26the person who publishes these things on our website. That’s why nothing reached you last Thursday. See below for what you would have gotten. It’s been slightly tweaked to reflect the fact that it’s appearing only today, on the third …

Co-missioners,  The divisions in today’s America were on stark display last Saturday. In Washington D.C. a parade was held to honor the 250th anniversary of the founding of the U .S. Army and, whether coincidentally or deliberately, to celebrate the current president’s birthday. Meanwhile crowds gathered in cities and towns …

Co-missioners,  Once again we pass along some timely observations from our editor. Peace and Joy, The Crossings Community    _______________________________________________________  Trinitarian Notes  by Jerome Burce  I write this in the week before the Feast of the Holy Trinity, 2025. This is the functional midpoint of the Western church calendar. It bears …

Co-missioners,  In this final week of the current Easter season we send you a couple of brief notes by our editor.  Peace and Joy, The Crossings Community    _______________________________________________________  Two Pentecost Notes  by Jerome Burce    Passing observation as we approach this coming Sunday—  1.  Let’s Get Real Are the liturgical …

Co-missioners,  Today is the Feast of the Ascension. Our editor has called it his favorite day in the entire church year. This, he says, is because it authorizes us to hear, trust and relay the Gospel as a description of the reality the world woke up to all over again …

Tongues as of Fire By Carol Braun  Back in the early days of the Covid pandemic, I started doing at-home Bible studies with my sons. Our Sunday school lessons for the Day of Pentecost have always been the easiest to put together. The Pentecost story in Acts is high drama, …

Co-missioners,  Fifty years have gone by since Ed Schroeder penned the piece of which today’s post is the second half. We mentioned this last week. No wonder that much of what Ed says here will feel out-of-date in 2025. Who in the churchly circles that lots of us inhabit these …

  Co-missioners,  For this week and next we dusted off another item from the Ed Schroeder corner of our online library. It’s an article Ed published in Dialog, a Lutheran theological journal, in 1972. The version in our library reports that it was “reprinted with permission.” As heirs of that …

  Co-missioners,  We have two items for you this week. We got the first from Mike Hoy on Good Friday. Mike is our current text study editor. He’s also one among the millions who are increasingly dismayed, not to say appalled, by the directions being taken by the current U.S. …

Co-missioners,  Back in 2022 the Rev. Dr. Steve Albertin, serving that year as interim pastor at Pilgrim Lutheran Church in Carmel, Indiana, sent us a sermon he had just preached on the texts for the Third Sunday of Easter, Year C (Revised Common Lectionary). Three days from now a lot …

Co-missioners,  This is Burce, your editor, stepping out from behind the curtain to own what you’re about to read.  I cobbled this together on Easter Monday, a day that began with a double whammy of sorts.  +  +  +  The first whammy was somebody’s Facebook re-post of a so-called Easter …

Co-missioners, On this Maundy Thursday we send you the ninth and final section of an essay by Robert W. Bertram entitled “How Our Sins Were Christ’s: A Study in Luther’s Galatians (1531).” We invite you to use this tomorrow as a Good Friday devotion. When you start reading, you’ll quickly …

Co-missioners, Here with a series of notes from our editor. Peace and Joy,The Crossings Community ___________________________________________________________________ Pre-Holy Week Notes and Comments, 2025by Jerome Burce An Easter Vigil Detail George Heider, a former chair of Valparaiso University’s theology department, sent me a note of appreciation for Steve Kuhl’s comments about the …

Co-missioners, On this third day of April we are ten days away from the beginning of Holy Week. With this in mind we send you a little gift we got from Steven Kuhl recently. It’s a piece he wrote thirty years ago for the ELCA’s Greater Milwaukee Synod. There were …

Soli Deo Gloria: At Easter There Will Be Trumpets By the Rev. Dr. Bruce K. Modahl  Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in the Virginia Tidewater had a lovely pipe organ and a talented musician. On 51 Sundays of the year that instrument and musician led the congregation’s song. For Easter the …

Co-missioners, The Gospel text for this coming Sunday is that parable of parables so often and insufficiently refereed to “The Prodigal Son.” Last Sunday we sent you a Crossings-style study of this text. Timothy Hoyer wrote it. It calls for your attention. Today our editor, Jerry Burce, insists on passing …

Co-missioners, This is the third and final installment of the gift we received from Marcus Kunz just before Ash Wednesday. Here he discusses the day’s Second Reading, 2 Corinthians 5:20b—6:10. Here too, as with last week’s treatment of the day’s Gospel, Marcus pushes us to think more deeply than we …

Co-missioners, Two weeks ago we sent you a reflection on Ash Wednesday by Marcus Kunz. It was one third of a submission that included extended discussions of the Gospel and Epistle for the day, each framed by the assumptions laid out in the opening section, the one you got. Today …

Co-missioners, Two weeks ago we sent you the summation of Crossings-style theology that Steve Albertin presented to our conference in January. Today we send an appendix to that presentation. Steve will introduce it himself. Peace and Joy,The Crossings Community ___________________________________________________________________ “Give Me a Break!”: A Sample Crossings Sermon by Steve …

Co-missioners, We were about to keep our promise to send you a companion piece to last week’s post when the item below dropped into our editor’s mailbox. One quick glance, and that first set of plans went out the window. What you’re getting today instead is a reflection on Ash …

Co-missioners, Some of you are likely wondering when Thursday Theology will do as the late Ed Schroeder used to when ThTheol was his baby. When times were fraught in church or state, Ed had no apparent compunction about speaking his mind on the issue of the day. And since his …

Co-missioners, Last week our editor stumbled across a little piece he wrote two decades ago. It was intended as an appendix to an essay on justification that appeared in Gospel Blazes in the Dark, Crossings’ 2005 festschrift for Ed Schroeder. For some reason the appendix didn’t make the cut when …

Co-missioners, Today we share a revised version of Lori Cornell’s homily at our recent Crossings conference. Lori preached at the Tuesday evening Eucharist. Our thanks to her for having taken the time to prepare it for publication. Peace and Joy,The Crossings Community _______________________________________________________________ Not the God We Want, but the …

Co-missioners, Today our editor offers some initial reflections on last week’s Crossings conference. Peace and Joy,The Crossings Community __________________________________________________________ A Post-Conference Effusion by Jerome Burce The then-pending Crossings conference I wrote about two weeks ago is now behind us. I caught a lot of happy sounds on the event’s final …

Co-missioners, The Rev. Dr. Steven Kuhl, a long-time leader in the Crossings Community, was serving five years ago as the rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in South Milwaukee. Early that year he sent a pastoral letter to the congregation addressing the financial straits they were in. His aim was …

Co-missioners, Today we send an update from our editor on the Crossings conference that starts this Sunday evening. Appended from a past conference is a piece of theological reflection that you will not want to miss. Peace and Joy,The Crossings Community __________________________________________________________________ Crossings Conferences: A Bit of What’s Coming, A …

Co-missioners, A new movie about Dietrich Bonhoeffer appeared in U.S. theaters within the past two months. You may have heard of it. Today we’re pleased to send you a thoughtful and timely review. Peace and Joy.The Crossings Community ____________________________________________________________________________   The Betrayal of Bonhoeffer and his Christ:A Review of the …

Co-missioners, Some post-Christmas thoughts from our editor as we plunge toward Epiphany. Peace and Joy,The Crossings Community __________________________________________________________________________ Late Christmas Observations by Jerome Burce A Prelude of Sorts— Today is the Ninth Day of Christmas in Western Liturgical Time—WLT, if you will. In BST—Boring Secular Time—it’s a deflating January 2nd, …

Co-missioners, A year ago today I heard from a Crossings veteran and dear friend who was gnashing her teeth over the sermon she had heard two nights earlier at an otherwise fabulous Christmas Eve service. There was no Gospel, she said. This friend was much in mind as I got …

Co-missioners, Today we send you the second half of Fred Niedner’s address at the recent closing of the Lutheran School of Theology, St. Louis. If flows directly from the end of Part One where Fred has named the event as the funeral it is and declared his intention to “preach …

Co-missioners, We’re about to jar you with a post that will sound distinctly un-Adventish. Is not this brief and blessed season about beginnings? A new church year? An old promise still lurking just past the horizon, and who can say when we’ll get to see it starting to unfold? How …

December 5, 2024 Co-missioners, The Crossings Table Talk session this past October featured a lively discussion about Lutheran worship in the classic liturgical style. Today Marcus Felde explores the origins and theological rationale of “contemporary” worship, as it’s frequently called. Heavily featured in America’s small “e” evangelical churches, it has …

Co-missioners, Today we send along—what else?—a Thanksgiving Day reflection. It was first thought out eleven years ago when Barack Obama was president of the United States. Its pertinence to the waning weeks of 2024 is eerily obvious, we think. God grant that this particular angle on the promises we have …

November 21, 2024 Co-missioners, Our editor having spent last week more or less underwater, we favor you today with another reprint. Emphasis, by the way, on the word “favor” –such is the item we’re reprinting. It appeared in Thursday Theology twenty-one years ago. As with so many early ThTheol gems, …

Co-missioners, In recent months, our Crossings Table Talk series has featured some especially lively theological conversations. The Table Talk of October 2024 was no exception. Our main speaker was the Rev. Amandus (Mandy) Derr, who retired in 2020 from a long career in Lutheran pastoral ministry. Mandy presented his thoughts …

Co-missioners, Once again we send you an item a few days late—late, that is, if you happen to be a preacher who was looking for a fresh take on the Gospel text appointed for this past Sunday. Then again, not so late if you’re someone who sat through a sermon …

Co-missioners, We have two items for you on this 507th anniversary of Luther’s posting of the 95 Theses. Our editor stumbled across them recently and couldn’t help but pass them along. Peace and Joy,The Crossings Community __________________________________________________________________ 1. A Deep Read (about faith and works, eventually) Today’s chief offering is …

Co-missioners, Today we send you a homiletical reflection on one of the issues at hand as another bitter election bears down on us in the U.S.  Steve Albertin wrote this. It’s an edited rerun of a sermon he preached at different congregations in the lead-up to the last two elections. …

Co-missioners, Our editor points you this week to an item published elsewhere that he urges you to read. Peace and Joy,The Crossings Community __________________________________________________________________ What’s Driving America’s Christian Nationalism?by Jerome Burce I’ve caught some muttering in recent months about how Crossings should address the matter of so-called Christian Nationalism in …

‘Now I Can Rest in Christ’s Embrace’ Dragged and Drawn — A Reflection By the Rev. Lori Cornell  Several years back I was captivated by a poem entitled, “Drag Marks”— a satirical re-creation of the poem, “Footprints in the Sand.” The poem offered me a less saccharin version of Christ’s …

Co-missioners, This week’s post is a little late. It’s personal too, as you’ll see. It also touches a little on a topic that’s come up in a number of conversations I’ve had over the past month. More on this next week, I trust. Peace and Joy, Jerome (Jerry) Burce, Editor …

Co-missioners, Today Steve Kuhl continues his response to Ron Roschke on the topic of how the Scriptures were heard and listened to in the classrooms of Seminex a half-century ago. Simmering in the background is Steve’s reaction to Ron’s suggestion—see his posts of last April—that historical critical methodology needs to …

Co-missioners, Last April we sent you a two-part essay by Ron Roschke on the interpretive tools that shaped the theology of Christ Seminary—Seminex. One of these tools was the Historical Critical Method used by Seminex’s biblical scholars. The other was the distinction between Law and Gospel that the school’s confessional …

Co-missioners,With school resuming this month in the northern hemisphere, Carol Braun explores a pressing issue that she and teachers around the world are suddenly wrestling with these days. Carol, of course, approaches this from her Crossings perspective, inviting all of us to notice how Christ’s benefits are absolutely of use to …

https://vimeo.com/1019418723?share=copy Author Crossings Crossings is a community of welcoming, inquisitive people who want to explore how what we hear at church is useful and beneficial in our daily lives. View all posts

Co-missioners,Steve Albertin, a longtime member of the Crossings Board of Directors and a co-host of our monthly Table Talk series, has just completed an assignment as interim pastor at King of Glory Lutheran Church in Carmel, Indiana. This was the third such assignment to have come his way since he …

Steve Albertin reflects on the question Am I REALLY a Christian?

Steve Albertin reflects on the questions Do I have to get baptized? Do I have to go to church?

Steve Albertin reflects on the question “Were Adam and Eve real people?”

Does prayer work? Can it change anything? Can it change God? Many think that prayer can never change God. If prayer changes anything, prayer changes us to accept what God is going to do anyway. Instead, prayer is “part two of a conversation started by God.”  God starts the conversation by …

Co-missioners, We have two items for you this week. The first is another response to our invitation of July 25 to send in thoughts about “the mess we are in.” The second is a quick reflection on the Gospel reading for this coming Sunday. Peace and Joy,The Crossings Community __________________________________________________________________ …

Co-missioners, The writer scheduled for today begged off at the last minute, so our editor rummaged in his personal storehouse and dug up this. It’s most of a sermon he preached three years ago when the covid pandemic was still a pressing concern in the U.S. The texts that day …

Co-missioners, One of us was poking around recently in a well-organized box of the late Ed Schroeder’s files. From it she extracted the sermon we send you today. Ed preached it on August 29, 2010, at St. Mark Lutheran Church in Belleville, Illinois, about fifteen miles east of St. Louis. …

Co-missioners, Last month we started sharing brief reflections about the political and cultural state of the U.S. this summer as seen through the lenses of Crossings-style theology. We posted two sets of these reflections on consecutive Thursdays. Then came a break. Today we send you a third set. It combines …

Co-missioners, We meant it last week when we launched a community discussion of America’s current political and cultural situation as seen through the confessional lenses we use at Crossings. Today we send you two ice-breaking contributions to the conversation. One of them predates last week’s post. It first appeared on …

Co-missioners, Our editor sends an initial response to a question that came our way in recent days. Peace and Joy,The Crossings Community ____________________________________________________________________ Thoughts on the Mess We Are In (Set One of ???)Initiated by Jerome Burce Four Thursdays ago, the sitting president of the United States, aiming for a …

https://vimeo.com/1000585638?share=copy Author Ron Roschke Ron Roschke is a retired ELCA pastor living in Denver, Colorado. He graduated from Valparaiso University in 1970 and from Concordia Seminary in Exile in 1974. He has served calls in Kansas, New York City, Colorado, and most recently served as an Assistant to the Bishop …

July 18, 2024 Co-missioners, Carol Braun, a long-time member of our Thursday Theology editorial team, reflects today on a question that likely weighs on countless others who are getting ready for another season of Christian education this fall. Parents and teachers will appreciate her insights. So will thoughtful pastors. Peace …

Co-missioners, The year was 1977. Seminex was three years old. In recent months congregations distressed by the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod’s turn to the right—its legalism, as they were quick to call it—had begun withdrawing to establish the new Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches (AELC). Moderates who remained in the LCMS …

Co-missioners, On this Fourth of July 2024, when much weighs heavy on every thoughtful American mind and we who pray as a matter of course scarcely know where to start and even less how to pray together, some driven to beg God for this, others to beg God for its …

Co-missioners, Nine years ago Chris Repp made a presentation at a Crossings seminar about the Augsburg Confession (AC) and how its opening articles overlap with the six steps of the Crossings Matrix. Some of us who heard the presentation at the time were impressed by the clarity with which Chris …

https://vimeo.com/1019262494?share=copy Author Crossings Crossings is a community of welcoming, inquisitive people who want to explore how what we hear at church is useful and beneficial in our daily lives. View all posts

Co-missioners, This is your editor again with some follow-up to last week’s post. The topic, you may recall, was translation; specifically, translation as a task that all of us are bound to engage in as we go about the mission our Lord has given us. Came a note over the …

Co-missioners, This is your editor, Jerry Burce, grabbing the reins for this week’s ride. I’ve spent the past several days visiting my father in Wisconsin. Every such visit gets me thinking again about my calling and yours as both missionary and translator. My father wore those labels officially during his …

The world is filled with religions all which ask similar questions about right and wrong, death and eternity, etc. But Luther wants us to ask a different question when it comes to God: What do I fear, love and trust more than anything else? That is my God. Christianity answers …

Co-missioners, We send you the second half of Fred Niedner’s presentation at the Seminex event in Chicago this past April. You’ll find it stunning. See, not least, Fred’s summation in his second-last paragraph of the Church’s role in the world today. We hope you’ll share this widely. Peace and Joy, …

Co-missioners, Fred Niedner earned an STM degree in 1973 at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, his theological alma mater. Two months later a majority of his teachers would find themselves condemned as intolerable by a convention of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Eight months after that those teachers would be leaving Concordia’s …

https://vimeo.com/1019430163?share=copy Author Crossings Crossings is a community of welcoming, inquisitive people who want to explore how what we hear at church is useful and beneficial in our daily lives. View all posts

Co-missioners, What we send you today is a gift I got a week ago from Pr. Shaun O’Reilly of Reno, Nevada. It’s a You Tube recording of what Shaun calls a sermon-poem. He delivered it to the saints of Faith Lutheran in Reno on the Seventh Sunday of Easter. A …

Co-missioners, “That’s the discussion I’m hoping to incite.” So writes Amandus (Mandy) Derr about the piece we invite you to read today. It’s another in this year’s irregular series of Thursday Theology reflections on the emergence of Concordia Seminary in Exile—Seminex for short—in 1974. Crossings is one of the many …

Co-missioners, At the Crossings seminar this past January we heard homilies from three of the younger pastors who had participated in last fall’s trial run of a new Crossings project in mentoring preachers. We have already shared two of these homilies with you. Today we send you the third. It’s …

Co-missioners, “Quo vadis”: where are you going? Dr. George Heider, a retired member of Valparaiso University’s theology department, made a first contribution to Thursday Theology two and a half years ago. He has kept an observing eye on Crossings ever since. Today George does as Ron Roschke did last week, …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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. …

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 …

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 …