Holy Week: Feasting, Fasting and Living in Tension
Blessings as we enter holy week! Many of you have journeyed with ELCA World Hunger through Lent as we have reflected on the Psalms and what meaning that vast collection of hymns, poems, laments and prayers might have for hunger ministry today. As the season comes to a close, thank you for being part of the 40 Days of Giving! Lent is a common time for congregations to focus on hunger and social ministry. Indeed, almsgiving is one of the traditional “three pillars” of Lent (the other two being prayer and fasting) and is still found as one of the…
Situation Report: March tornadoes in the Southern U.S.
Destruction in Amory, Mississippi.Photo: Southeastern Synod Disaster Response Situation: From March 24-25, a powerful line of thunderstorms swept through the southern United States, spawning at least 20 tornadoes. Across multiple states, tornadoes and strong winds damaged buildings and knocked out electricity. The largest tornado was an EF-4 that traveled through Rolling Fork, Miss. Response: Lutheran Disaster Response is supporting the Southeastern Synod to address the immediate needs of disaster survivors in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia through local congregations and partner organizations. The synod is also providing emotional and spiritual care to both survivors and responders. Be part of the response: Pray Please…
How the Inscrutable unReality of Darkness Keeps Barth and the Athanasian Reformed from Incoherence and a Dogmatic Christian Universalism
I want to talk about God’s shadow side. The rip against Thomas Torrance, Karl Barth and the Athanasian Reformed is that their respective doctrine of election leads to some form of Christian universalism (some are okay with that). But in fact, it doesn’t. People like Keven Vanhoozer, Robert Letham, Roger Olson et al. have critiqued Torrance, Barth, and Evangelical Calvinists, like myself, with reference to what they take to be our theological Achilles heel. Because they think from within an Aristotelian or Stoic theory of causation in a God-world relation, they cannot imagine how the Evangelical Calvinist, after Barth, Torrance…
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 the millions of people suffering from hunger and famine, especially in Nigeria, Somalia, Yemen and South…
March 26, 2023–Invitation to Care
Brenda Henry, Carnegie, PA Warm-up Question What issue in your community would like to see addressed and why? Are there others who have a different perspective than you? What are some of their reasons for their position? Invitation to Care In the city of Dumaguete, Negros Oriental Island, in the Philippines, groups of people have come together to fight against a proposal that they believe will severely impact their community. This proposal, P23-B, is a land reclamation project that seeks to develop the coastlines of the city. Proponents of the project argue that the development project dubbed “The Smart City”…
What Hath the Biblical Critics To Do with the Confessors?
Last night at work, as I’m prone to do, I was praying and thinking about—for some reason—the role that non-Christian biblical exegetes and commentators can have for the confessing Christian reading of Holy Scripture. When I was writing my Master’s thesis on I Corinthians I used a few commentators who would fit the higher critical non-confessional mold of a biblical exegete; one of these was Hans Conzelmann. He helped me work through some issues that the “evangelical commentators” weren’t. I think such critics can actually provide a fresh view of things without the oft ecclesial accretions that might attend the…
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 people involved in labor strikes – teachers in Los Angeles, workers across sectors in France, and…
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 the students and staff at Covenant School in Nashville, and for all who are grieving, traumatized,…
The Church’s ecstatic Existence and Evangel[istic] Mandate
The Church is for the world, because God in Christ is for the world: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life. -John 3:16 The Gospel gives us life eternal; the Gospel is God’s life for the world, for us, in Christ; thus, genuine life, of the eternal type, of God’s triune type, comes ecstatically to us. It comes to us from the vicarious humanity of Christ as ‘He becomes us that we might [by grace] become Him, and share in the superabundance…
April 2, 2023–Broken Trust
Amy Martinell, Sioux Falls, SD Warm-up Questions Who is someone you completely trust? What organizations (school, clubs, health system, etc.) do you trust? What organizations do you not trust? Is it easier to trust people or organizations? Broken Trust The last few weeks have brought worry and panic to the banking world. The panic began with the sudden collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank over a three-day span. These bank closures led anxious customers to withdraw their money from other smaller regional banks and place it with bigger institutions that are better capitalized. These smaller banks then had…