He had not seen his brother in a long time. To be honest, I doubt either of them really regretted the time which had slipped away between them. When they parted it was not exactly on the best of terms. Jacob and his twin brother Esau had a relationship bound up in turmoil and adversity form the very beginning. There was betrayal and fear and stolen birthrights. No doubt there was envy and bitterness and a father’s heart which broke for his sons.
preaching
By Bob Hiller – Greetings, Dear Jagged Readers! It has been far too long since I’ve last blogged. […]
By Paul Koch – John Calvin, the least entertaining of the Reformers, famously said, “From this we may […]
By Joel A. Hess – You’re preaching to the choir! We say this when someone says something we’ve […]
By Tim Winterstein – [SPOILERS] Velvet Buzzsaw (streaming on Netflix) is the latest example of how Netflix is […]
By Paul Koch – “Yes, Haven, most of us enjoy preaching, and I’ve got such a bully pulpit” […]
By Cindy Koch –
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” Her eyes sparkled and grew a little bigger. Focusing into the future, somewhere beyond our present conversation, she released her hopeful dreams from within. I could see the inspiration of tomorrow lifting every little bit of her countenance. There in her mind she could imagine herself, in the best way, part of a world and an identity that she longed to see. Every so often you might be so privileged to see this glimmer of excitement in a child’s life. Every so often you might be so blessed to witness a moment of inspiration.
By Paul Koch –
Being a hearer of the Word is not my usual position. I am a speaker of the Word, one called to proclaim the living Word of God to others. I’m a pastor, the guy up front, and I’ve grown accustomed to that role over the years. It has become somewhat comfortable.
By Paul Koch –
Ever since my first foray into the study of theology proper, I have heard professors and pastors alike say that the church’s liturgy can operate as a sort of safety net for Gospel. After all, the liturgy contains confession and absolution, leads through the reading of the Word, and culminates in the Sacrament of the Altar. Therefore, if everything else is a complete wreck—if the hymns that are sung are weak and repetitive nonsense meant only to pull at the heart strings; if the people sitting around you are bothersome and annoying little twits; if the sermon preached misses the mark, wandering off into a pointless Bible study or self-help pep talk; you would still have the body and blood of Christ, the forgiveness of sins, the Gospel, so you would be okay.
By Paul Koch –
In 1849 Wilhelm Löhe wrote an examination of the relationship between the pastoral office as it comes to us from the pages of the New Testament and the congregations that hold firm to those very Scriptures. He made note of a trend he had observed in the church, a trend that I fear has never abated, a trend that does great damage among the people of God.
By Bob Hiller –
The devil wants to be your preacher. He wants to get into the pulpit on Sunday morning and entertain you, make you feel good, convict you of all sorts of wrong doing, and inspire you to do better. He wants to make you laugh, cry, and sing. He wants to captivate your hearts and leave you feeling like you can conquer the world. Sure, he wants you to be miserable on the way to hell, but if he can get you to enjoy the ride before the car crashes, that suits him just fine. So long as you don’t trust in Jesus, the devil is happy to be your preacher.
By Tim Winterstein – So I watched Pale Rider for the first time. Clint Eastwood is great, as […]
By Joel A. Hess –
As I left my beautiful call in Northern Michigan to serve God’s people in Chicago, many of my brothers in Christ asked me about who their next pastor might be. I told them that the right guy won’t necessarily be just like me. Thank God! I have plenty of flaws that hopefully their new guy will improve upon. Of course, he will have his own weaknesses. Our Lord covers them all. Nevertheless, God will provide the right shepherd for their current needs.
By Paul Koch –
Do you confess the Unaltered Augsburg Confession to be a true exposition of Holy Scripture and a correct exhibition of the doctrine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church? And do you confess that the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, the Small and Large Catechisms of Martin Luther, the Smalcald Articles, the Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope, and the Formula of Concord—as these are contained in the Book of Concord—are also in agreement with this one scriptural faith?
By Joel A. Hess –
A couple of weeks ago I attended a very sad funeral. It was for a boy who took his own life, as teenage boys sometimes violently and impulsively do when they think they are backed into a corner. The room was packed with kids, family, friends. They all knew he died. They all knew how he died. It was on everyone’s mind. Suicide does that. It forces everyone to stare blankly into the abyss. Though kids laughed and nervously carried on, no one can deny that there was, as they say, a huge elephant in the room. This was not just a sad death, but the saddest kind and the most difficult to comprehend: suicide.
By Paul Koch –
A little framed picture hangs to the right of the door exiting my study which leads into the sanctuary of the church. Most people leaving through that door probably never even notice it, but I do. Though it is small, behind the glass is a simple and eloquent prayer. I’ve had it hanging on the wall of my study ever since I’ve had a study. I’ve read the words printed there so often that I have them memorized and simply looking at the dark mahogany frame causes me to recite them like some sort of strange Pavlovian reaction. It’s a prayer written by Luther, a prayer written for people like me. The first line reads:
By Jeff Pulse –
The Old Testament text for this Sunday, July 8, 2018, the seventh Sunday after Pentecost, is from the book of the prophet Ezekiel. The text is Ezekiel 2:1-5 and is usually entitled the “Call of Ezekiel,” although the language of the Hebrew more indicates the “Sending of Ezekiel.” We see this language also in the “Call” of other prophets as well (Isaiah; Jeremiah). Horace Hummel, whose Commentary on Ezekiel 1-20 in the Concordia Commentary series we will point to on occasion, titles this section as “The Prophetic Commissioning of Ezekiel: Part 1.” Part 2 of this commissioning would begin then in chapter three.
By Paul Koch –
Peddlers of bulls**t are nothing new. Our lives often seem to be saturated in their mess. We’re used to hearing bulls**t from our politicians and bureaucrats of almost any stripe. There’s bulls**t on the left and bulls**t on the right. There’s the difficult to decipher bulls**t that comes from mainline media outlets and the intentionally crafted and personally curated bulls**t we find in our preferred online news sources. I’ve been accused of peddling bulls**t myself. Hell, I’ve probably even been guilty of it more times than I would like to admit.
By Jeff Pulse –
Our text for this Sunday is from the book of the prophet Ezekiel. The text, Ezekiel 17:22-24, is quite short, only three verses, but it is quite interesting in the larger context of chapter 17. The chapter begins with a riddle, an allegory, which is introduced by, “The Word of Yahweh came to me.” Note also that this phrase is repeated in verse 11, which begins the second major portion of the chapter and contains our pericope. As we go through these three verses it is interesting and important to see them in the larger context of the allegory in the opening portion of chapter 17.
By Paul Koch –
Once a month, all my colleagues get together for a regular meeting of all the pastors in our circuit. We sit around and talk shop over coffee and breakfast type foods. We undertake some sort of theological study and catch up on any important news from our district (though it’s never as important as they think). Yet the pinnacle moment of our time together and the thing I enjoy the most is worship. That’s right, we gather together to receive the Word and Sacraments of our Lord, and it is something I cherish.