A Screed on the Relationship Between the Biblical Exegete and Theologian
When people say that theology isn’t really biblical studies, they fail to understand what theology is doing. Good theology is engaging with the inner theo-logic of the text of Holy Scripture and its reality in Jesus Christ. It’s engaging with the underlying notions that allow the Scripture writers to write and assert what they do about God. It’s identifying the theological ontological ground that sees Scripture in its taxis or order vis a vis as an instrument of the living and triune God. Good theologians are engaging with the Holy, as such, they unswervingly trust that God is a good…
Situation Report: Cyclone Freddy
Situation: Photo: Francis Botha/NCA-DCA Malawi After forming near Australia, Cyclone Freddy traveled westward, eventually making its first landfall in Madagascar on Feb. 21 and then two more landfalls in Mozambique. In addition to Madagascar and Mozambique, Malawi was profoundly affected. Freddy led to at least 1,200 deaths, including over 1,000 in Malawi. Freddy was the longest-lasting tropical cyclone in history, lasting five weeks and two days. Response: In response to Cyclone Freddy, Lutheran Disaster Response is supporting the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malawi (ELCM) and Evangelical Lutheran Development Service (ELDS). ELCM is distributing food to impacted people, as well as…
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 in our world, especially in Sudan, Ukraine, and Israel… For a calming of tensions between…
God Alone is Good
17 And as he was setting out on his way, one individual ran up and knelt down before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do so that I will inherit eternal life?” 18 So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.’” 20 And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have observed from my youth.” 21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: Go, sell all that you…
Speak and Act for Trans Lives
This post, “Dear ELCA, We Must Speak and Act for Trans Lives,” is reprinted in full by permission of the author, originally posted to the author’s blog on March 27, 2023. By Jamie Bruesehoff [about the author] During this week leading up to Transgender Day of Visibility as legislative attacks terrorize the LGBTQ+ community with many targeting transgender young people, consider our call as a church and how we might live that call out in proclamation and action for the sake of our siblings. This post is specifically directed at my siblings in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America…
April 9, 2023–Truth of the Resurrection
Jen Krausz, Bethelehem, PA Warm-up Question Does the good news of Easter—Christ is risen!—still hit you with fresh meaning each year? Do you consider Easter the most important holiday of your faith? Why? Truth of the Resurrection A study by Christian publisher Lifeway showed that while most people (66%) say they believe the biblical accounts of the physical resurrection of Jesus are completely accurate, most young people ages 18 to 34 (59%) say they don’t believe the physical resurrection really happened. “Young adults are less likely to be cultural Christians than their parents or grandparents, partly because identifying as a…
All You Ever Wanted to Know about Barth’s Analogy of Faith
The Deus absconditus (‘hidden God’) is the Deus revelatus (‘revealed God’) in Jesus Christ. But how do we know this? Because Jesus said so; He demonstrated so. A genuine Christian theologian isn’t given to fits of speculation about godness. A genuine Christian theologian is definitionally such simply by the confession that they are Christian. But much of this has gone by the wayside in the development of dogma in the catholic Church. In Latin theology for example, where Thomas Aquinas has been canonized, for both the Catholic and Protestant theologian alike, the method for developing a doctrine of God is…
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 in Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, and Yemen… For victims of gun violence, especially those who died…
April 16, 2023–Peace to All
Kelsey Brown, Brooklyn, NY Warm-up Question When meeting new people, what’s something you share about yourself to help them know you better? Peace to All Our current news cycle is full of debates around the validity and protections of the LGBTQ+ community, particularly our transgender siblings. While no one’s lives and identities should be used for political fodder, we many shape these conversations around demonizing trans folks, and more specifically weaponizing what God thinks about the diversity God has created. CNN reports that transgender young adults are 40% more likely than their cisgender counterparts to contemplate suicide. The attack on…
Christ’s Resurrection as the Basis for Freedom Before God and Others
The following is a post I wrote quite a few years ago where I reflect on the implications of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is both devotional, personal, and a little academic in orientation; but I think it’s fitting for today. Christ is risen! I really struggled with a false sense of guilt and condemnation for particular sins from my past for years upon years. The enemy of my soul kept me living under ‘a yoke of bondage’ that Jesus said I ‘would be free indeed’ from. The Lord did not leave me as an orphan though, by the…