law and gospel

The Unexpected Kingdom

By Paul Koch –

I have noticed over the years that the people who seem to care the least about a day set aside to acknowledge fatherhood are, in fact, fathers. The men who are honored on this day don’t tend to think all that much about it. When someone asks a father what he is going to do on Father’s Day, he usually hasn’t given it much thought and probably doesn’t really expect anything in particular. Sure, your family may have a certain tradition that is carried out every year but that is not usually some great expectation that a father desires for himself but is something that has worn in by time and habit. Father’s Day is a difficult day of sorts. It is one that we are expected to observe yet no one is really sure what we are supposed to do with it. It is a day that is all about fathers but turns out to be as complicated as the men it honors.

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Is the Church Ready for Suicide?

By Bob Hiller –

Remember that scene from the Luther movie that came 15 years ago where Martin Luther takes the boy who hanged himself and buries him in the church graveyard? Everyone was standing around in shock, and the gravedigger was telling him he couldn’t do it. After all, it was thought that suicide was a mortal sin. With no chance for repentance or penance, this soul was not going to be given the opportunity for purgatory, let alone rise on the last day in the protective shadow of the church. It was believed that suicide meant damnation. Yet, Luther showed compassion in the shadow of the church. He gave that boy a Christian burial. The meaning of his actions was clear: Christ’s mercy is stronger than suicide.

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Art is a Language we all Speak

By Hillary Asbury –

My favorite thing about studying in Italy was getting the chance to travel and see religious art and architecture around the country.

The history was so rich, and I absolutely relished being surrounded by it. Everywhere I traveled there was a main cathedral, usually at the city center, always referred to as the “Duomo,” not for the often domed architecture but for the Latin word for “house.” As the city’s main dwelling place of God, it was often built imposingly large, made to be visible (and the campanile, or bell tower, heard) from any point in the city. It was a beacon, the center of daily life.

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Crushed

By Paul Koch –

Genesis Chapter 3 is an incredibly profound and rich text. It tells the story of mankind’s great fall into sin. We see here the beginnings of the rebellion, the mistaken movements in the name of misplaced freedom. We hear the echoes of the desires of our own hearts, the longing to stand on our own, to know good and evil, to be like God himself. It begins with the rejection of the Word of God, when the serpent asks, “Did God really say?” God just wants to hold you back. He wants you to remain subservient. And so, they take and eat. They do what was forbidden, and their eyes are opened. They now know good and evil, and they are terrified by what they’ve done. They hide from their Creator, their relationship with Him is torn. Instead of assurance and confidence it is now marked by doubt and fear. They see their nakedness and are ashamed.

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Caught in Racism? What Do You Say?

By Bob Hiller –

Someone is caught in the act of a grievous error. Everyone saw it. There is no denying it. They can’t justify it. So, what should be said about it? J. R. Smith might not be the best guy to learn from in this scenario. As I’m sure you’ve seen by now, LeBron’s Cleveland Cavaliers (the team J. R. Smith is on…for now) was about to pull off a huge surprise in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. No one really expects them to win the series; few expect them to take even a game. But at the end of Game 1, they were primed to steal one from Golden State and change the entire conversation. Down by one point with five seconds left, George Hill was at the free-throw line for the Cavs. He hits the first to tie the game at 107. It looked like overtime when he missed the second shot, but for J. R. Smith! He snags the rebound, and all he has to do is put the ball back in the hoop. Game over. Cavs win! Smith is the hero!

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A Little Art Goes a Long Way

By Hillary Asbury –

I have yet to encounter a single church body that does not utilize a logo or image of some kind to represent them. It may be a simple cross or dove, perhaps just a square of color overlaid with the church’s name. But there it is, a symbol of the church’s identity; it communicates their heart and mission, who they are as a congregation, how they want to be seen by the world. It’s a big task for a small piece of art, but its value is unmistakable.

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OT Encounters: Genesis 3:8-15 – Clothed by God

By Jeff Pulse –

Our text for this Sunday, is from the first book of the Torah, Genesis. The text is a familiar one, Genesis 3:8-15, and describes separation of God and man as a result of the Fall into sin in the Garden of Eden. Obviously, the Fall is a tragic event on every level. Adam and Eve have disobeyed God, not trusting in His promises, and they find themselves hiding from God in their shame. There is no way this can work out for them, and they know it.

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You Choose Hell

By Cindy Koch –

Whole faith systems are built to keep you away. Churches and teachers go over and over the roads of escape. Narrow paths are forged. Gated communities are constructed. Actions, music, words, and deeds are scrubbed crystal clean so that you might be protected. When someone starts to slip back into the pit of darkness, you have to fix them up quickly. When you begin to lose your seemingly solid foothold, it just might be too late.

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Apologetics as Love of Neighbor

By Bob Hiller –

We’ve all been there: You’re having a conversation about the faith with a person who is struggling to believe, or doesn’t at all. In the course of the conversation, they bring up an argument you don’t have an answer for. In fact, the point is way over your head, and you worry that pursuing the question will challenge your faith in uncomfortable ways. Maybe they are questioning how you know Jesus rose from the dead, or why you believe the New Testament is full of trustworthy documents. They’ve watched the latest Food Network special on the historical Jesus or checked out the latest Bart Ehrman thriller reconstructing the first four centuries of the church, and now they have questions. They aren’t afraid to put you on the spot: “How do you know? Why should I believe?” And all you can say is, “I just have faith that it is true. You just need to believe it! Take it on faith!”

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Victory

By Hillary Asbury –

The triumphant cross has long been one of my favorite representations of the cross.

There is something so elegant about what is says about our Savior. The cross sits atop an orb which represents the Earth—that’s all it is. It is so simple, but it says so much. It represents Christ as Savior. Christ as King over all. Christ victorious. Christ arisen. It tells of a God, a Creator, whose creation has rebelled over and over again, bringing death upon themselves and the world they were given. It speaks of a Creator who purchases and creates new life for a sinful planet.

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Is your life like a Rubik’s cube?

By Joel A. Hess –

I still remember when the Rubik’s cube came out and had everyone puzzled for at least a little while. Then one day at recess when I was in third grade, everyone marveled at a young genius named Todd. Todd had cracked the cube. We gathered around him near the monkey bars as he showed off his cube. It was in complete disarray. He then left the crowd and hustled near the fence. Soon he returned with the puzzle in complete order. Wow! Soon we learned the trick. Todd ripped off each little piece with his pocket knife and then simply put them back in the right place. He destroyed and rebuilt it! Like Captain Kirk and the Kobayashi Maru, Todd became a legend. Of course, we all quickly did the same much to the chagrin of our teachers.

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Holy, Holy, Holy

By Paul Koch –

The great and powerful king of Judah, King Uzziah, has died. He, of course, wasn’t the first king to die and he wouldn’t be the last. Perhaps with his passing the hopes and dreams of his people have crumbled. On the other hand, perhaps it is a moment of renewed resolve. But despite the coming and going of humanity’s great kings of the earth, there is one King whose throne is never vacant. There is a King that does not change with the times. So, in the year that Uzziah dies, Isaiah the prophet of God, finds himself in the throne room of God standing before the eternal King.

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Sad Songs and Specific Sermons

By Bob Hiller –

In the unfortunately titled but always intriguing Revisionist History podcast, Malcolm Gladwell offers a theory about why country music can do sad songs and rock and roll can’t. He says it is because country music is specific. In the episode, “The King of Tears, he compares “Wild Horses” by the Rolling Stones and “Boulder to Birmingham” by Emmylou Harris. Both songs were written while the artists were coping with sorrow. The rumor goes that Mick Jagger wrote “Wild Horses” while his then girlfriend, Marianne Faithful, was seemingly dying from an overdose (she lived). He sat by her bedside and sang “Wild Horses couldn’t tear me away.” The comment is general. It can be applied to any number of circumstances. It’s sad, sure, but it doesn’t really churn your guts. (Jagger says it was actually written by Keith Richards, himself, and Gram Parsons).

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What Men Can’t Say

By Cindy Koch –

It was only the beginning of a fight. She said. He said. But it turned ugly when she said too much. His anger flared, and his voice got louder. She stood her ground and said so much more. They felt the pulse of the evening race out of control as their words fueled a fire. Anger prickled his neck. Tears choked in her throat. Panic and pain washed over their hearts deep in the middle of their broken conversation.

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Can These Bones Live?

By Paul Koch –

As a child, we had one of those rooms in our house in which nobody ever sat. Not that you couldn’t sit there: there was a large sofa, some complimentary small tables and lamps, and of course the well-appointed window dressings. It looked like a delightful living room, or family room, or whatever you called that room. It would have been a nice place to sit, just nobody ever did. However, in that room we had a large family Bible. It was the type that was full of beautiful images from the paintings of Rembrandt to the etching of Gustaf Dore.The image of Ezekiel’s prophecy over the valley of dry bones was by far my favorite. It was dark and terrifying, full of half formed skeletons worthy of a modern-day zombie movie. Standing over them in the background was the image of the prophet himself overlooking the scene with a stern resolve. The caption below the picture was taken from the text itself. It was a simple question asked by our Lord, “Can these bones live?”

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In Praise of the Inefficient Church

By Paul Koch –

Over the years I have read quite a bit about the influence of Scientific Management in our schools, corporations and military but I had never really thought much about its influence in the church. Scientific Management views efficiency as the highest good. So if you want a good and well-oiled society the best way to get it is to engineer it to be as efficient as possible. Schools need to track students and guide them to fill a specific role in society and so people are viewed as part of a machine, each providing a crucial piece and working with the highest efficiency. Such things don’t happen by chance; they need to be scientifically managed to reach the best outcome.

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Emoji Evangelism

By Cindy Koch –

It’s how all the kids are talking these days. Short, quick pictures in a language of their own. Emoji characters, each displaying a carefully selected message through tiny, pixilated picture. Even I am getting the hang of communicating this way. In our modern world of texts and picture captions, sometimes you need a good smiley face or sarcastic wink to convey the sentiment of our condensed disconnected comment. In a real face-to-face conversation, you might be able to pick up on the inflections in my voice, or hear the subtle laugh, or recognize the serious tone to distinguish just what we are talking about. But in cyber-land, tiny typed shapes take on a life of their own, traveling instantly over time and space, leaving the receiver to interpret our quick shorthand exchange.

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Don’t Judge Me

By Cindy Koch –

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye’” (Mat 7:1-5)

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Sharing Jesus

By Paul Koch –

I have a confession to make, I’ve never really liked the phrase “sharing Jesus.” I’m not sure why, but it has just always sounded weird to me. But I hear it all the time. I was watching the call service for the new pastors from the Seminary in St. Louis and the preacher must have emphasized over a dozen times the need to “share Jesus”. You must share him with the people, share him in this or that particular way, go out of your way to share your Lord. It makes it sound like you’re sitting down next to your neighbors with a big bowl of Jesus and you’re inviting them to dig in and get a bite. Like he is some sort of quantifiable substance that is passed back and forth. And it all sounds so easy, right? Just share him! Well, it’s not such a simple and straightforward task. It’s complicated. We have difficulty sharing Jesus with our own family and friends, let alone people we don’t know all that well. So just to say that you need to or ought to share Jesus doesn’t actually do much.

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