Who Gets to Be a Saint?
What is heaven like? Who gets to be there? Here is what the seventh chapter of the Book of Revelation says heaven will be like:
Pandemic’s Lesson
https://youtu.be/xmIHqbO6_Ig Matthew 20 21, 22 Well, this week in Lutheran churches, Jesus gets into politics again. Seems like Jesus was always breaking that social rule about avoiding religion and politics in polite company. Of course, the company was anything but polite in the gospel story we will hear on Sunday— or rather, it was polite to the point of saccharine, as the religious and politic leaders of the day try to trip Jesus up with a tough question: Is it lawful to pay…
Thank an Unfair God
In Matthew 20, Jesus tells a parable: For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them out into his vineyard. When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and he said to them, “You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.” (see video)
Mercy Against All Odds
One of the questions pastors get asked a lot is, “Do you think Hitler will go to heaven?” You say God is gracious, you say God can forgive anything, so how gracious is God, really? (see video)
How Prayer Works
It has been a long six, eight months, hasn’t it? Aren’t you tired of this? Don’t you want your summer back, your life back, your economy back? What are we supposed to do with millions unemployed, and now, maybe millions who can’t pay the rent? Or buy groceries? (see video)
Crazy to Try
https://youtu.be/T0wWZ6tgGKQ MATTHEW 10:40-42 As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it— that doesn’t mean the one who figures out the parable, because not even the disciples could do that; Jesus had to take them aside and explain everything, pass them the answers in the class or they’d have never passed the course. No, the one who hears the word and understands it is not the one with the brains to figure God…
Welcome Everyone As Christ
Jesus sends his disciples out into the world with this promise: Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Hospitality is the mark of the church; we receive everyone as though they were Christ himself— it is our business, it’s what we do. (Video)
I Doubt It
Every single Easter story in the Bible has fear and confusion and doubt. It seems as if it is impossible to have faith in the resurrected Jesus without also having doubts— and that … that’s okay. (see video)
Fish for Breakfast
Good morning. A friend of mine challenged me to do a sermon while cooking, so I accept the challenge. Today we’re having fish for breakfast. (see video)
Driven Outward and Inward
Yesterday, out of the blue, an old friend 500 miles away, sent me a text message—just wanted to send greetings, she said. We hadn’t been in touch for over two years.
Mortal, Can These Bones Live?
Ezekiel 37:1-14
These Bones Shall Live Again
Here’s a God question for you,a question God puts to you:“Mortal,” God calls you, “can these bones live?” I’ve been thinking about the prophet Ezekiel,prophesying to that valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37.And I’ve been thinking about these dry, anxious, fearful timeswe’re living in. We are all anxious right now,whether you feel it or not—because I’m not talking about a feelingbut something more like a state of being.We’ve been threatened by something we can’t see,a virus, a danger we don’t know...
