Preachrblog

OCEAN CITY, Md. — Genetic material from four dead fetuses found at an Ocean City home was being examined Tuesday in an attempt to see whether a 37-year-old taxi driver charged with murdering one of the babies is the mother of all four. I am struck by this story for a number of reasons. 1. I am originally from Baltimore, MD and Ocean City was a favorite vacation spot for our family. In fact, I spent my honeymoon with my wife there. 2. Obviously this story presents all sorts of problems for the pro-abortion/pro-choice proponents. It will be interesting to see the legal wranglings over this case, and how the law treats this woman's actions in regards to the babies, born and unborn. 3. Mostly, though, the whole thing just makes me sick. And it makes me ponder about the ever more shocking news stories I've been reading in the headlines. Things that are unspeakable have become daily fodder for our media outlets. The Connecticut home invasion . This story, which I hate to even ...

Pentecost 9c July 29th, 2007 Luke 11:1-13 "An Egg or a Scorpion?" An egg or a scorpion. Close your eyes, hold out your hand, and I will give you one or the other. Which would you like? I think we would all prefer the egg. But what happens when the egg looks like a scorpion, and the scorpion looks like an egg? Then I may think I want the scorpion, even though I really want the egg. Today we hear from Jesus on prayer. Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer is a little different than the one we’ve all memorized, but essentially the same. It is the example, or model prayer for disciples of Jesus to pray. It teaches us how to pray, how to think about prayer, what prayer is all about. But not just prayer – in fact here we learn much more about our relationship with God. For instance… He is our Father, and we are his children. Perhaps not something that shocks us, but it should, that the God of the universe would see himself as our loving Father. We pray for his name to be kept holy, a...

Here's a local cable television ad we ran a few years back. We eventually gave up on it because the cost was a little high, and we weren't able to run it too often. Of course, now in the age of YouTube... I see all kinds of possibilities. We are going to tinker with some sermon V-Casts soon. Many thanks to Matt who is helping out with this project!

Same-sex salvation LUTHERAN CHURCH | Wayne Miller, the next Bishop of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod, is pushing for abolition of celibacy requirements for gay and lesbian clergy...  link here.

Did some updates to the blog... cleaned up some of the mess at the top, updated some links, removed some clutter. Also deleted "Lutheran Surviror"  (cancelled?) and moved much of "Render Unto Caesar..." to a perma-post on the main blog. Simplifying my blog life, you see.

So they asked him, "Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly, and show no partiality, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?" But he perceived their craftiness, and said to them, "Show me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?" They said, "Caesar's." He said to them, "Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." And they were not able in the presence of the people to catch him in what he said, but marveling at his answer they became silent. (Luke 20:21-26 ESV) A Collection of Resources on Lutheran Two-Kingdom Theology: From "Issues, Etc." Lutheran Radio Program: Issues, Etc. Wednesday, July 7, 2004 Hour 2 WMA Hour 2 MP3 "Open Lines: Sen. Kerry's Remarks at the AME Convention" "Christianity & Culture: Two Kingdom Theology" Rev. Mark Sell Concordia Publishing House Hour 3 WMA Ho...

Pastor Ryan Fouts, from an internet discussion group : "Of course we have areas of agreement. The disagreements have certainly shifted from SOME of those of the Seminex era -- though I'd suggest that "Gospel reductionism," morphed now into "mission reductionism" is one of the errors of our day being avidly promoted by some" "Mission Reductionism" - a false belief in some circles that "mission" or "outreach" is the number one priority of the church, something I certainly saw on display at the recent LCMS convention. Thanks for the aphorism, Pr. Fouts!

Sermon St. Mary Magdalene John 20:1-2, 10-18 July 22, 2007 As you’ve certainly noticed from our bulletin, today we observe a saint’s day in honor of Mary Magdalene. Like Christians throughout the ages, we look back to these people of God, especially from the New Testament, as examples of God’s grace shown in people’s lives, and as examples of faith for us to follow. We don’t worship the saints, or look to them for any blessings – that is reserved for God alone. Nevertheless, there is something to learn from them about how our Lord deals with his people. And so we consider Mary Magdalene today, not for her own sake, but for how her story leads us also to Christ. So who was Mary? What we know about her from the New Testament is this: she was a follower of Jesus. He had cast 7 demons out from her. Along with other women who accompanied Jesus to Jerusalem, she witnessed the crucifixion. She also was among those first witnesses to the Resurrection. After seeing Jesus’ body missing at the em...

Too tired to blog much about the convention. A little frustrated, and a lot bored. You can get the daily summaries from lcms.org I would commend to you another two bloggers who have been commenting: The Confessional Gadfly for the comments of delegate Rev. Eric J Brown Thinking Out Loud for the thoughts of delegate Rev. Rick Stuckwisch Edit: One Lutheran Ablog! Rev. Paul Beisel shares his thoughts as a delegate Don't forget to also check out the ALPB.org coverage

Kieschnick re-elected 52% on the first ballot. Diekelman narrowly edges out Wohlrabe on the 3rd ballot for 1st VP. Paul Maier 2nd VP. John Wohlrabe 3rd VP, the one candidate I voted for that won... Nadasdy and Buegler 4th and 5th. Lots of other manuevering on nominations and omnibus resolutions, in which the "minority" was basically shellaqed. Video greetings from president GWB as well as some minor levity rounded out this very LONG first day of the convention.

Well here I am in the hotel lobby, too cheap to pay the $10/day in-room internet fee. At least it's free here. As promised, an update from the convention so far. Official business, and the "big" elections begin today. I'm sure I will post about that later today. Yesterday was: open floor committee meetings (which I did not attend), all delegate orientation (which was prety much the same as last year), opening worship, and the all-delegate meal. But so far the most notable things that have happened have been conversations I have overheard. One, in the shuttle on the way from the airport, included a conference attendee who came only to speak to the floor committee. He was a PCA (conservative Presbyterian) military chaplin who was lobbying for the LCMS to pass a resolution decrying women in combat roles. We had an overture to that effect which the floor committee had declined - saying the issue had been adequetely covered in a 13 year old Lutheran Witness article (w...

Charismatic Pastor in Uganda is accused of getting a little "help" in his... uh... anointing.

As I mentioned, I will be trying to provide a daily reflection on the day's events. This may depend on my access to the internet. But there are a couple of other sources you may wish to check out for convention reporting. One is the live video stream and other sources provided by the LCMS website. See here for "How to get convention news" Another is the reporting of Pr. Speckhard, of the American Lutheran Publicity Bureau (ALPB). This intra-Lutheran group certainly tends toward a more "moderate" stance, and Pr. Speckhard describes himself as a "company guy". Still, it's another perspective.

Check out this interesting article by Cal Thomas "Hillary on Her Faith" .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3qFMwsIIt0 Click on the link above to see Dr. Rolf A. Jacobson's introduction on, "How to Read the Bible". As an LCMS Lutheran, I have little to quibble with in (ELCA) Dr. Jacobson's comments until about 4:35 in the video, where he discusses the authority of the Bible. He discusses two approaches:  "Behind the Bible" and "In Front of the Bible".  The "Behind the Bible View" he then goes on to describe as "verbal inspiration".  However the way he describes it sounds more like the "dictation theory", which those of us in the LCMS typically don't espouse, even though we do hold to "verbal inspiration".  So this is a straw man.   I would also object to his assertion that Lutherans haven't traditionally understood the Bible as verbally inspired.  In fact, they always have, as Luther did.  It is this new approach that is the real innovation.... The "In Front of the Bible...

As our circuit's pastoral delegate, I will be attending the LCMS convention in Houston next week. As I've told many, "I expect it to get hot in Houston, and the temperature should be pretty warm too!" I plan to blog daily with news of the convention - particularly my insights and observations. Some of this might depend on internet availabilty. Will the hotel charge (or charge too much) for access? This is the biggest burning question I have right now. It would be nice to "live-blog" the convention, however, sadly, no electronic communication devices are allowed in the voting delegate section. Perhaps they will let me listen to my MP3 player, at least.... Anyway just some preliminary thoughts on how I am inclined, at this point, to vote next week: Offices: Wohlrabe , Pres. Preus, 1st VP ...along with the usual cadre of more traditional candidates. Resolutions: 1. Missions Generally against most things "Ablaze!" i.e., the assumption that our ch...

Gay pastor's bid for inclusion denied Largest Lutheran group removes him from list, but church flock plans to petition on national level.