That’s what a member asked me years before while still in the parish. I asked a question about my house, and he responded, “That depends. Is it your body bag house?” This needs no explanation, does it? You know what he means. The house you expect to die in. Well, we have one now. Continue reading
It is possible to go so overboard about “faith” about believing – like Pentecostals do, some Baptists do, and some Lutherans too, then you end up having faith in faith, worshipping faith. The same is true of liturgy. You can go so overboard about liturgics that you worship worship. Can you so overboard about the Bible that you worship it? Would that necessarily be wrong? Continue reading
That is the subject of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod president Matthew Harrison’s fund appeal of March 9, 2026. you may ask why I who haven’t been a member of the LCMS for 7 years would even know about this letter? Because the ever inept LCMS bureaucracy sent me the letter. Continue reading
Christians may differ, radical Republicans on the right and noodle-headed Liberals on the left, notwithstanding about birthright citizenship. They can have honest disagreements – without compromising their confession, Scripture, or America. You may disagree with the 14th Amendment being used to establish the so-called anchor baby policy which leads to a lot more people gaining citizenship than just the one born here. You may agree with the 14th Amendment’s intent to protect those born here regardless of their race or whether their parents are citizens. But to paraphrase the famous words of Seinfeld’s Poppie’s: “Birthright membership is absolutely wrong; about this there can be no debate.” Continue reading
Last year, I admitted to a young woman who asked me, “Should we really be celebrating the Fourth of the July where people rebelled against legitimate rulers?”, that for years I had planed my vacation so as not to have to preach on or about the Fourth. I told her that I had once preached a sermon based on the “hymn” written for all those women living in sin and think they’re heading for marriage. “Two out of Three Ain’t Bad”. The chorus tells the sad tale: Continue reading
Wasn’t sure whether to include this as an entry for Fathers’ Day under the category of Families or under Big Tech: Big Lie or Promise. Under that heading this reminds me of a classmate’s description of Death as an enormous shroud “that enfolds all peoples” (Is. 25:7, NIV). Or for you techies, the government’s Carnivore internet surveillance tool.
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What does this post have to do with birds? Nothing. It’s the proverb “what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.” It means equality of treatment in similar circumstances, and may have come to mean that or meant that from its earliest use in the 16th century. Dickens, 1859, is apparently the first one to say it specifically but there are adumbrations of it as early as 1562 (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/what%27s_sauce_for_the_goose_is_sauce_for_the_gander#cite_note-5). But this is not about male/female but black/white. Uh-oh. Continue reading
Can you believe that “Days of Our Lives” has been on TV 60 years? They have 15,000 episodes, and the fact that I’ve never watched one of them or even have the slightest idea of what that soap opera is about is moot. Those “Days” don’t matter. For the Christian’s “Days of our Lives” is not about our days. The Six Days of our Creation are…or they use to be. Continue reading
Remember those 1980’s car commercials, “You can learn a lot from a dummy” which showed crash test dummies in unbelted crashes, etc.? I believe these preceded the plethora of books for dummies. Even a 19th century poet who seems to have led a crazed life and died in what most charitably can be called “suspicious circumstances” can be learned from. Continue reading
