Assembly goers and Pastors this season will notice a familiar pattern in the Scripture readings. These readings give the Church an opportunity to hear the Gospel of John. The first three Sundays allow us...

The Three Days of Our Lord represent the pinnacle of worship in the Christian community. The events of these Three Days stand not only at the very heart of our faith, but...

Preaching and Listening are the jobs always connected to the call and grace of Baptism. Especially so in the season of LENT. The Invitation to Lent, spoken in the Ash Wednesday liturgy, opens with...

This year the Time after Epiphany is a full eight Sundays. The Sunday following January 6, The Epiphany, is the Baptism of Our Lord. Following Baptism of Our Lord, seven more Sundays, including the...

The Epiphany commemorates the arrival of The Magi who came from afar to pay homage to the Christ Child. Yet the Christ Child is born to us every day and our Epiphany is continuous....

The Season of ADVENT is about waiting for the coming of the Lord. We wait for Christ’s arrival that happened twothousand years ago and for the arrival that is yet to occur. We journey...

All Saints Sunday has become an important and non-negotiable festival in our Lutheran congregations. Observing this festival’s readings, however, breaks up the narrative of the Common Lectionary Sunday readings through the brief remainder of...

At the heart of the gospel message is the mercy of Jesus. A merciful Messiah, who is our blood ransom. A merciful healer and teacher who hears the begging of outsiders otherwise ignored by...

AUTUMN – September The Pastor’s Pen‘After a summer of discipleship through “binary challenges” (a call away from; … a call toward … ) and moments of decision, St. Mark in his gospel now moves...

Saint John continues our late-summer Gospel readings with Jesus feeding the ancient crowds with bread, and feeding us with his Word. We are confronted again with the ‘either-or’ questions of discipleship we have been...