40 Days of Giving 2023: Week Four
Session 4 — Psalm 23 ‘“You prepare a table before me.” —Psalm 23:5 The community of Cataño, Puerto Rico, is vibrant, with residents talented in music, art and sports, yet it also faces a number of challenges. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the median household income is about $ 18,600, nearly 12% lower than the average in Puerto Rico. Forty-six percent of people in Cataño live in poverty. So when Hurricane Maria passed through, the devastation compounded ongoing challenges and added new ones. Leaders of Tu Puedes, a project based at Iglesia Evangélica Luterana del Divino Salvador, recognized the…
March Updates: U.N. and State Edition
Following are updates shared from submissions of the Lutheran Office for World Community and state public policy offices (sppos) in the ELCA Advocacy Network this month. Full list and map of sppos available. U.N. | CALIFORNIA | COLORADO | NEW MEXICO | PENNSYLVANIA |WASHINGTON | WISCONSIN | Lutheran Office for World Community (LOWC), United Nations, New York, N.Y. – ELCA.org/lowc Christine Mangale, Director Child Labor Statement: LOWC co-led the creation of the statement “A Call to Stop Stealing Children’s Lives” as part of the United Nation’s NGO Committee on Migration. Lutheran World Federation (LWF) has signed. The letter…
The Miracle of the Gospel as Theological Ontology-Epistemology
The Gospel, the Incarnation is a miracle not of this world. This is why abstract philosophical constructs cannot handle the weight of the Gospel, they end up distorting it. The Gospel comes with its own rationality, one that is funded by the miracle of the Incarnation. The rationality of this world, of the type that the ancient philosophers have developed, cannot scratch the surface of the miracle of the Gospel. The world and all of creation is contingent upon this miracle, the Gospel; the world was created for the Gospel, not the other way around. As such, in order to “discover” the…
Index of the March 2023 Issue of Administration Matters
Issue 86 of Administration Matters It’s tax season: Updated tax guides are now available through Portico. Portico Benefit Services provides ministers and congregations participating in the ELCA benefit program with no-cost access to annual tax guides. For ministers, Clergy Tax Return Preparation Guide by Richard R. Hammar gives special attention to tax-related topics most relevant to ministers. For congregations, Federal Reporting Requirements for Churches by Richard R. Hammar helps congregations understand their federal tax-reporting requirements. Rostered Ministers Gathering – early registration ends March 31. Let this gathering be an opportunity for you to remember, reclaim, rekindle and revive yourself. Gather…
March 19, 2023–Seeing Possibility
Jason Fisher, Champaign, IL Warm-up Question Share a story of someone who pointed out the potential they saw in you. Who is someone you could help to see their own giftedness? Seeing Possibility Yvonne Shortt is an artist who uses grasses, clay, moss, and other natural materials to create beautiful sculptures of people’s heads. Slowly over time Yvonne began losing her eyesight because of a rare genetic disease called Retinitis Pigmentosa. Her story is part of a documentary called Adapt-Ability by filmmaker James Robinson which highlights how her limitations are really a gift to her art. Not being able to…
What is Federal or Covenantal Theology? Per Caspar Olevianus
The following is a blog post I first posted in September 18th, 2009. I posted this at another blog of mine from back in the day. I think what is really important to understand is that if the student doesn’t understand the entailments of classical Federal or Covenantal theology, they won’t grasp the weight of what we are offering as an alternative and counterweight in Evangelical Calvinism. Evangelical Calvinism isn’t actually a counter to five point Calvinism, per se; but instead, it is a counterweight to the thicker theology behind five point Calvinism as that developed in the Post Reformed…
40 Days of Giving 2023: Week Three
Session 3 — Psalm 95 “For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.” —Psalm 95:3 Let’s get this out of the way: Psalm 95 is a weird psalm. It’s so odd, in fact, that choosing a single verse to use as an epigram for this session was difficult. Yet even from its most perplexing language we might still be able to glean insights that help us better understand the work of God in the world. In The Social Visions of the Hebrew Bible: A Theological Introduction (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2000), J. David Pleins…
For What Shall We Pray?
“For What Shall We Pray?” is a weekly post inviting individuals, groups, and congregations to lift up our world in prayer. This resource is prepared by a variety of leaders in the ELCA and includes prayer prompts, upcoming events and observances, and prayer suggestions from existing denominational worship materials. You are encouraged to use these resources as a starting point, and to adapt and add other concerns from your local context. More information about this resource can be found here. Prayer prompts: For peace and an end to violence in our world, especially between Ukraine/Russia and Israel/Palestine… For refugees…
No Vision or Knowledge of God without God’s Holiness: The Role Christ’s Sanctification for Us Plays Towards Having Genuine Knowledge of God
Εἰρήνην διώκετε μετὰ πάντων, καὶ τὸν ἁγιασμόν, οὗ χωρὶς οὐδεὶς ὄψεται τὸν κύριον, Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord . . . Hebrews 12:14 ὄψεται (lexeme: ὁράω), translated in the NKJV above as ‘will see’ is in the future tense third person middle indicative. I have a theological-exegetical theory: P1. Divine holiness and peace are required in order to have vision and knowledge of God. P2. Knowledge and vision of God are eschatological realities available now and for eternity to come. P3. Only Jesus Christ for us has divine holiness and peace to…
Roma refugees from Ukraine face racism, discrimination
Holocaust survivor Mariia Simian, her granddaughter Anzhelika Bielova, both from Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, and Phiren Amenca staffer Anna Daroczi at a memorial for Roma victims of the Holocaust, Mariia Simian, from Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, is living through war for a second time. Just three years old when World War II tore across Europe in the 1940s, she says the memories haunt her. “I remember everything,” she says. “I often remember. My mother hid our whole family from this horror wherever she could – in the basement, in fields behind the house – because the Nazis were looking for Roma.” Simean, who is…