The sermon I preached yesterday (Feb. 10, 2013) as the conclusion of the Winter Seminar on Pietism at Bethlehem Covenant Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Our text was Luke 9:28-45. (You can listen to the sermon at Bethlehem’s website.) “Better to keep silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.” (We’re … More “Listen to Him!”: A Sermon for Transfiguration Sunday
Here • One last burst of rating college ratings focused on the use of “comparison groups” by colleges and universities. • In their own return to publishing, Douglas and Rhonda Jacobsen examined another return: that of religion to higher education. • It wasn’t a long post, but struggling to pick just nine favorite Bob Dylan … More That Was The Week That Was
Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I … More Resurrection
Earlier this week I posted meditations that I had contributed to the 2011 and 2012 editions of our church’s Lenten devotional. The first such book came out in 2010: it seems like my contribution to that inaugural edition fits well with Easter Saturday, the painful space between Crucifixion and Resurrection during which many Christians keep … More Stay Awake
Each of the last three years, the members and friends of Salem Covenant Church in New Brighton, Minnesota have produced a Lenten devotional book. On Monday I shared the meditation I contributed to the 2012 devotional. On this Good Friday, it seems appropriate also to post what I wrote for the 2011 edition, which had … More The God Who Grieves
The last three years, our church has produced its own Lenten devotional book: forty days of reflections on passages of Scripture related to a central theme, each followed by a prayer for the day. And all done by the laity and clergy of Salem Covenant. It’s been a privilege to be part of each devotional, … More Compelled
I’ll be back tomorrow with my usual Saturday links post, then expect more new posts next week as we return from Bethel’s Spring Break. Today, one more reprised post from recent months: my meditation on the mysteries of the Christian sacrament known as Communion, Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper, etc. There are few things I understand … More Best of The Pietist Schoolman: The Mystery of Communion
It’s amazing sometimes that anyone can learn English. Look up the word “imposition” in Webster’s, for example, and you’ll find four listings: something imposed: as (a) a levy, tax, or (b) an excessive or uncalled-for requirement or burden the act of imposing deception the order or arrangement of imposed pages What then to make of … More An Imposition
There are few things I understand as little and love as much as the sacrament of Communion. That’s something I’ve realized more in the past few years, since, as a lay leader in our church, I’m regularly asked to serve Communion. (A genuinely important example of that terribly overused cliche, “servant-leadership,” I think.) Depending on … More The Mystery of Communion
After being awake for twenty-three hours (thirteen of them on one Delta plane or another), my body decided that it was still on Munich time, so I stumbled out of bed at 4:30, brewed coffee, and started to go through my Google Reader feed — neglected for over two weeks now. I don’t subscribe to … More Those Were The Weeks That Were
The Pietist Schoolman 