Thursday Theology: A “Peek Behind the Curtain” at Crossings-style Preaching

Co-missioners, 

Two weeks ago today I was getting home from the 2026 Crossings Conference still feeling stuffed. The conference fare had been rich to say the least. How could it not have been when the presenters’ lineup included Fred Niedner and Kit Kleinhans, Adam Morton and Glen Monson and Robin Lütjohann, all of this launched with an introduction to Crossings by Marcus Felde and Pr. Alex LaChapelle of Marquette, Michigan, all of it topped off with a splendid discussion by a thoughtful lay panel about how their trust in Christ affects their experience of the nine-to-five working day. Carol Braun, the superb facilitator of our monthly Table Talk discussions, moderated the latter session. Pr. Ella Moehlman of Lisbon, North Dakota, moderated the entire conference for a second consecutive year, again guiding the proceedings from start to finish with humor, grace and obvious skill. Not only did we learn a lot; we had good fun doing it. (If this should whet your appetite for next year’s conference, the dates are already set: January 10-13, 2027.) 

Today’s writer, Pr. Kevin Anderson of Mesa, Arizona, was one of the key instigators of the discussion this year. He lit some sparks in a late-night conversation at the 2025 conference the morphed into the general topic our speakers addressed. It had to do with the perennial Lutheran question of who gets the credit for the things we do that please God. A year ago Kevin was pretty sure that he did not. Today he’s as cheerfully sure of this as he was then. You’ll see this below in the sermon he preached on the Sunday after this year’s conference, which he attended online. I should mention that Kevin is addressing the congregation he started serving late last summer as a newly called-and-ordained pastor. He’s still getting used to them, and they to him. Hence in part the approach you’ll find him taking. He wants the saints he serves to know why he talks from the pulpit the way he does. I gather from conversations with Kevin that a lot of them are surprisingly surprised by the good news they’re hearing these days.  

Thanks be to God that this is so. And to the extent that this little Crossings movement has been of help in bringing this about, thanks be to God for that too. 

Peace and Joy 
Jerry Burce, Co-editor 

 

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An Overt Crossings style Sermon on John 1:29-42 

by Kevin Anderson, Pastor 
at Spirit of Hope Lutheran Church, Mesa, Arizona

 

Grace and peace to you from the One who calls us out of darkness and invites us to “come and see,” our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  

I spent the beginning of this week, Sunday through Wednesday, attending a continuing education event online: the Crossings Conference. Crossings is a community of academics, pastors, church leaders, and everyday people who work with and look closely at the Lutheran perspective on Scripture: law and gospel theology—more on this later. 

Crossings was born out of turmoil in the Lutheran church—a historically unsurprising birth when we look at the history of Lutheranism, particularly in the United States. While the roots of the community have a much deeper theological history, the fallout of pastors from the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) would lead pastors and theologians to look for a place to continue working and teaching this law/gospel perspective, as well as the confessions of the Lutheran church. Their emphasis was centered largely on helping people better understand what we believe as Lutherans and how that understanding shapes the way we read the Bible and live our faith in everyday life. 

This is a poor and lacking expression of the formation of this community and the work that they do—one I will surely hear about later—but it is a starting place nonetheless. 

Every January, Crossings hosts a conference in St. Louis, Missouri. Presenters, including academics, pastors, and lay people (non-pastors), bring their expertise and life experience to a topic. The theme for this year’s conference was “In Christ for Good: The Gospel and Christian Behavior.” Presenters spoke about what it means to be “In Christ for Good,” the Crossings Method for looking at Scripture, preaching law and gospel, what it means to live out faith, the passive life of Christianity, the implications of the gospel, and more. We even heard from folks who do not work in the church and how they see this law/gospel understanding being experienced and lived out in their jobs and in their lives. 

I will be, undoubtedly, unpacking the content, conversations, and presentations from this most recent gathering for weeks, months—perhaps years. 

Today, we will go through, at least in brief, the Crossings method of reading the text in sermon form. You will get a look under the hood, a peek behind the curtain, at how this pastor you have called approaches the task of preaching. 

The Crossings method is a six-step process, using the language of diagnosis (identifying the problems—which names our ultimate problem—three steps) and prognosis (naming solutions—including our ultimate solution—also three steps). We journey through external, internal, and eternal problems and then back through eternal, internal, and external “solutions.” 

Step 1: The external or surface-level problem 

A text usually gives us many problems to name. This is what the law does. We hear the law all the time. We see it in the Ten Commandments—“Thou shall not kill”—and we hear it all the time in culture: “Thou shall be rich,” or “Thou shall look younger than thou art.” 

A given text usually gives us a lot of these kinds of problems. Today, we will look at Andrew and Simon’s declaration: “We have found the Messiah.” 

On the surface, we like to take the credit. We like to believe that we have things under control—and this is especially true in religion. We say the right things, we do the right things, we largely know what we have and what we believe. Using all of this, we create a frame for this Messiah: we have found him. We know who he is, what he is going to do, how he is going to behave—we form our expectations. 

These expectations become our measuring stick for ourselves—and for God. This is often the gauge we use for whether we are performing well and whether God is behaving appropriately. 

The truth is, our expectations are often lacking, and we find ourselves—even with the best expectations of the Messiah—hanging in the balance, unsure if we are truly doing things right by our standards, let alone God’s standards. This leaves us open to fear and anxiety, which may cause us to fear, trust, and love all kinds of things that are not God. 

Sometimes, unbeknownst to us, our expectations set us up to be let down.  

Step 2: The internal problem 

Not only does “our discovery” of the Messiah—our hopes of him and ourselves—become the measuring stick for us, it also becomes the judgment stick for others. We quickly see that the world is not behaving as it should. We are tempted to label, categorize, and group the “other,” whomever they may be. 

The truth is, the Messiah doesn’t always—if ever—do what we expect him to do. We feel this acutely as our lives unfold and pain or trauma come to the forefront. “How can this be?” we ask ourselves. I am a Christian and bad things aren’t supposed to happen to good people.  

Perhaps we try to ignore it, or we double down on what we believe is true about this Jesus, how we should be behaving, and particularly what other people should be doing. 

It is here that perhaps we begin to see: we didn’t actually find the Messiah we were hoping for… 

Step 3: The eternal problem 

When Jesus doesn’t do what we expect him to do, we find ourselves empty-handed. When all the things we have feared, loved, and trusted more than God fail to provide what they have promised—life, abundant life—we find ourselves feeling helpless. Looking back to this Messiah we “have found,” we “find him” again—surprisingly, shockingly, even offensively—hanging on a tree. 

This is the full weight of the law. It is here that we see all the ways in which we have failed to do what he asked us to do, and we see all our excuses, hiding, and refusal—even in the form of our expectations—hanging there with him on the tree. 

It is our Good Friday. 

We feel the burden of our hopes for this Jesus, and a deeper problem—a “God problem”—is revealed. We may ask ourselves quietly or out loud: what good is a Messiah who comes and dies? 

Step 4: The eternal solution—It is here that we are crossed. 

This Messiah does not stay dead. 

The one we thought we had found—the one we tried to manage with our expectations—is revealed instead as the one who has found us, by bearing what we could not escape. 

“Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” 

What we questioned and judged as failure—this Messiah that comes and dies—God declares victory. What appeared to be the end of hope—our Good Friday—has become Easter: God’s decisive action for the world. 

It is here we see that Jesus has not come to confirm our standards or to meet us on our terms.  

He comes to take away sin—all of it—including our need to be right, our need to control, our need to prove, the endless ways we try to justify ourselves. 

This is the gospel—not a demand, not a new law, not a better system of expectations. It is a promise: given, spoken, finished—we are forgiven. 

In baptism, God places us into this reality: into Christ’s death, into Christ’s life—not because we have found the right Messiah, but because this Messiah has found us and claimed us.  

Step 5: The internal solution 

When this promise is trusted—received rather than managed—we are freed. 

We no longer have to hold ourselves together, measure ourselves against others, or decide whether God is behaving properly or not. 

It is here, we see that faith is not something we manufacture. Trust is not something we muster up, but trust happens when the weight is lifted. 

We see that the Messiah has found us—not as spiritual consumers or religious performers—but as disciples. Not because we got it right, but because he has called us by name. 

Step 6: The external solution 

Upon hearing the good news—the gospel—we are sent not to prove its truth, not to fix the world, not even to enforce belief—but to bear witness. 

With our words and with our deeds, we echo what has already been done. We invite others into the reality we ourselves have been given. 

“Come and see.” 

Come and see the one who has done what we could not. 

Come and see the Messiah who does not meet expectations, but gives life. 

Come and see what God has already decided for the world. 

Amen.