As Christians, we tend to throw around the word forgiveness quite a bit, but I wonder - do we really and truly grasp the depth and difficulty behind what TRUE forgiveness is? Jesus tells us we're to forgive 70 x 7 times, which means we forgive wholly and completely. But what does this look like?On the one hand, our tendency is to go, "Fine, I forgive you, but don't ever darken my doorstep again." Can we really truly forgive, but still keep the relationship broken? Or does forgiveness entail ... Read Full Story

This coming Sunday is Good Shepherd Sunday: the speech Jesus gives about the thief trying to steal his sheep, but his sheep know his voice. During this week's sermon brainwave, Rolf Jacobson told a story about this farmer who raised sheep. He was at the fair and talking with this guy about his sheep. When he got home, he discovered strange tire tracks and went in and discovered his sheep were gone. A few weeks later he went to the fair in the next county and discovered his sheep, which had b... Read Full Story

I know I haven't written on this for a while, but just haven't felt the muse - until I started reading over the texts for this week. Granted, I did write a pretty in-depth paper on John 3 for my Gospel of John class several years ago, but I decided to spend some time this week really looking at the "serpent vs. cross" imagery that gets played out here.The bronze serpent story in Numbers 23 I've always found to be a fascinating little story - albeit a somewhat bizarre story. Why Jesus would p... Read Full Story

Don't ask me how it is I always find myself in these situations where I'm having discussions with atheists and whatnot. But, I do. (I think in part it must be through facebook and the fact that I'm back in touch with people from my "past life" who were frequently not of the religious ilk)At any rate, I'm having a discussion with this atheist and just asking some basic questions about why he's an atheist, and the response was not a huge surprise, but it made me start thinking that once again,... Read Full Story

Saturday, December 13, 2008 A friend of mine recently directed me to an article regarding an ELCA church in San Francisco, Ebenezer Lutheran, which had the following sign up: "Goddess Rosary, Wednesday 7 pm." (You can read the entire article here) While I have my own reservations about certain "feminist" language that is being imposed on biblical translation, this transcends a mere question of whether God has feminine qualities. When a "Goddess Pilgrimage to Crete" (sponsored by a pagan... Read Full Story

Saturday, December 13, 2008 OK, this is a totally random posting... but I was sitting here discussing the lyrics of the 12 days of Christmas with my mom (yeah, that's what it's degenerated to, I'm afraid) and how I always get the last 3 totally mixed up, so I looked up the lyrics online and discovered that the symbols of the 12 days apparently actually stand for something! (I know - most of you probably know that and are all shocked and a little disappointed that dear Rivkah had never g... Read Full Story

I'm sure most of you read or heard about the man who was trampled to death at a Wal-Mart in New York. Eager holiday shoppers stampeded the store, tore doors off their hinges, and trampled the employee to death, while injuring more who were attempting to help the fallen man - all in the name of bargain shopping.The story made me sick to my stomach. For more reason than one. First, just the general indifference people seem to have for one another these days - that their bargain shopping was mo... Read Full Story

Friday, November 21, 2008 This Sunday is Christ the King Sunday. Admittedly, my initial thought was "Egads! How do I preach this?" (Matthew 25:31-46) Sheep and goats, eternal hell, all that fun stuff.This text is always difficult for Lutheran pastor’s to preach. A former professor of mine, Karoline Lewis, illustrated it like this:As a kid, you go up to your mother or father and say, “My neck hurts when I go like this” – and then demonstrate the pain-inducing move. Our parent’s response:... Read Full Story

Oh goody. It's that time of year again! The articles are already pouring in about how humanist atheists are once again trying to "get rid" of Christmas. Normally, I just roll my eyes at this and go on my merry way. However, admittedly, this latest article I came across in the Lincoln Journal Star I found somewhat irritating.The article headline from the Nov. 12th Journal Star paper was entitled "God Humbug: Humanist Holiday Ads Say 'Just Be Good.'" Apparently, the American Humanist Associati... Read Full Story

While no one likes to receive "hate mail" in response to something they've said or written, I, personally, have found it to be a great tool for honing my arguments and delving deeper into what I believe about scripture. Recently, I received one of these caustic letters that called me an "usurper," "blasphemer," and someone who wanted to interpret scripture so that it fit my own wanton desires because I wrote an article that defended a woman's right to hold the office of pastor apparently in ... Read Full Story