Tag: World

What if Christ had never come? A rather counterfactual thought experiment, given the fact that He did. And yet Pierre Maury runs with this line for a moment in a Christmas sermon he gave in 1952 in his home country of France. Thinking of our odd habit of making a distinction between the things we may have with Jesus Christ and in him, and the things we think we can think we can have without him, it occurred to me to imagine a world without Christmas, a world into which Jesus Christ had never and would never come, where we…

By Giovana Oaxaca World Refugee Day is observed annually on June 20th. This is a time to honor the courage and resilience of refugees worldwide. Because of growing displacement due to conflict, climate change, and insecurity around the world, it’s more important than ever before to raise awareness about the plight of refugees, to advocate for justice, and to show solidarity with refugees and those seeking legal recognition as refugees, such as asylum seekers. You can show solidarity with refugees by expressing that you believe in a world where refugees are welcomed. “I was a stranger and you welcomed me,”…

Christ’s atonement is limited to Christ’s vicarious humanity for the world. As the ‘firstborn from the dead’ He is the second and greater Adam, wherein all of humanity, from Christ’s elect humanity, comes to have the capacity, in echo of Christ’s Yes and Amen for us, to say Yes and Amen by the Spirit, to the Father. Christ is God’s unconditionally elect human for the world, and it is in His humanity that we come to have the capacity to truly be human; insofar that the entailments of what it means to be genuinely human is to be in right…

The following is taken from the 2024 ELCA World Hunger Lent Study. The full resource can be ordered as a hardcopy or downloaded as a PDF in English or Spanish at the link here. Week 4 — Restoration ••• Numbers 21:4-9; Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22; Ephesians 2:1-10; John 3:14-21   The first reading for this fourth week of Lent is from the book of Numbers. The Israelites have been on their exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land for years, and the goal is nigh. They have received the law from God through Moses at Sinai and are now on the final…

The following is taken from the 2024 ELCA World Hunger Lent Study. The full resource can be ordered as a hardcopy or downloaded as a PDF in English or Spanish at the link here. Week 3 — Crucifixion Exodus ••• Exodus 20:1-17 Psalm 19 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 John 2:13-22   “We proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.”  —1 Corinthians 1:23 In this week of Lent, having reflected on encountering God in reconciliation and in transfiguration, we turn toward Paul’s message of “Christ crucified” and reflect on what it means to encounter God in crucifixion, to…

The following is taken from the 2024 ELCA World Hunger Lent Study. The full resource can be ordered as a hardcopy or downloaded as a PDF in English or Spanish at the link here. Week 2 — Transfiguration ••• Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 Psalm 22:23-31 Romans 4:13-25 Mark 8:31-38 or Mark 9:2-9 This week in Lent we continue exploring the places and moments in which we encounter God, reflecting on transfiguration as recounted in Mark 9:2-9. Here God’s manifest presence before the disciples demonstrates God’s presence in the life of creation, especially in times of injustice. “Transfiguration” is an odd word…

The Eastern Liturgy: Christmas Joy Christ is born! Tell forth His fame! Christ from heaven! His love proclaim! Christ on earth! Exalt His name! Sing to the Lord, O world, with exultation! Break forth with glad thanksgiving, every nation! For He has triumphed gloriously! Man in God’s own likeness made, Man by Satan’s lies betrayed, Man by sting of death dismayed, Banished from hope of life and of salvation, By Christ today is made a new creation: For He has triumphed gloriously! God the Maker, when His foe Dragged us down to death and woe, Bowed the heavens and came…

One week from today the Thirteenth Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation will begin in Krakow, Poland. The Assembly will take place September 13-19, and serves as the highest decision-making body of the LWF, which represents 77 million people from 150 member churches across 99 countries. In addition to celebrating the common faith of the Lutheran communion across contexts and cultures, the Assembly offers mutual enrichment through joint reflection and discernment while providing a platform for joint decision-making. As the principal authority of the LWF, the Assembly is the most representative expression of the LWF communion. Delegates from all member…

  This week, four leaders from across the United States joined ELCA World Hunger and the Lutheran Office for World Community in New York City as delegates of the Lutheran World Federation at the 2023 United Nations High-Level Political Forum. The forum was an opportunity for UN member states, agencies and organizations to share updates on progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals. As our delegation learned, progress against the goals has been slow and, in some cases, has reversed. The delegation, representing the 149 member churches of the Lutheran World Federation, including the ELCA, was able to hear from leaders…

The God of classical Calvinism and Arminianism is the same God, in the sense that their respective doctrines of God find resource in what Richard Muller identifies as ‘Christian Aristotelianism.’ How the Christian thinks of God will determine all else following, theologically. Since the actus purus (‘pure being’) god of Aristotle stands structurally and materially behind the way that Calvinism and Arminianism generally conceive of a God-world relation, what happens is that they must construct a system wherein this God remains untouched by said creation/world. In this effort, said systems have come to think of this God-world relation through a…