Tag: Good

Jacqui Buschor, Little Rock, AR Warm-up Questions Do you like games where people compete against each other like Monopoly, or games where everyone works together toward a common goal, like escape rooms? Why do you think that is your preference? Whose Side Are You On, Anyway?  Even if you’re not old enough to vote, I’m sure you’ve heard people talking about “the growing political divide in America.” Maybe you’ve seen evidence of it yourself on the news, in your church, or even in your own family. It seems like everywhere we turn we can find more and more evidence that…

Warm-up Questions What is your favorite thing to eat? What happens if you have too much of it? Olympic Bread With the Summer Olympics in Paris this summer, bread is playing a central part in the tourist experience. After all, France is known for their bakeries, from crunchy baguettes to sweet pastries and so much more. One bakery went so far as to imprint Olympic rings on the fifteen pound loaves they were baking. You can read more about that here or watch a short video on it here.  There’s something strange in that first paragraph. A loaf of bread…

Rita Argus (Denver, CO) Warm-up Question What signs of spring have you noticed this week? The Good Shepherd I love going for hikes, especially in the springtime. Even before I moved to Denver, I would go for long walks in nature and soak in God’s creation. There was just something about the budding of trees, the smell of the soil, the rustling of birds or squirrels, and the warmth of the sunshine that would calm my brain and ground me in the moment. On one particular hiking adventure, the trail led us through a valley dotted with yellows, oranges, pinks,…

Some people confuse the Enlightenment for the New Creation. To the point that the human spirit has come to a crossroads in its development, and become civilized, or good. But this is not what the Gospel says. The Gospel says that we are constantly being given over to the death of Jesus that His life might be made manifest through the mortal members of our bodies. This presupposes that as Martin Luther rightly emphasized, as Christians, we are simul iustus et peccator (simultaneously justified and sinner) while we continue to inhabit this in-between time within our bodies of death. The…

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…

Jesus is our life; He is God’s humanity all the way down. ‘He who knew no sin assumed sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.’ Our sin is ever before us, but it is only now before us in the glorified face of Jesus Christ. We can never deny that we were, and continue to be (in this in-between) sinners, insofar that the humanity of God bears witness of this reality to us all our live long days. But it is this grace of God that has shown up for us in these last…

ELCA Worship has provided a worship resource responding to the war in Ukraine. These resources are available from the ELCA.org Worship Resources area: https://elca.org/resources/worship#Liturgy. As we approach Holy Week and the Easter season, you may desire worship texts that hold in tension the joy of the resurrection with the reality of violence and suffering in our world in Eastern Europe and around the globe. Below are three newly composed worship texts by Gail Ramshaw available for use in your context during Holy Week. Guidance for use precedes each selection.    For Good Friday From the third century on, a central feature…