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So Many Words
For Lent this year, I decided to give up clutter. Central to the clutter was a number of boxes of books that I had accumulated from years of impulse purchases and the libraries of retired pastors. Each one got evaluated on the basis of this question– “Am I likely to read this again?” And so each book was distributed with limited exceptions for “sentimental value” into either a pile destined for the office bookshelf, or a pile where the books would be sold to raise money for the parish school. It was a painful, almost purgatorial, experience for a historian pack-rat like myself...
That They May Be One
Our spring 2008 hymn.
The Elastic Lutheran Polity
In the early 1960's the ecumenical vanguard was the Consultation on Christian Union (COCU). It involved Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Congregationalists in an effort to bring together their diverse and mutually exclusive understandings of ministry and church polity. American Lutherans were not involved, but we are evolving slowly but surely toward restoration of the three-fold office of ministry (bishop, pastor, and deacon). I think this is good thing and, judging from wide spread acceptance, most all concerned believe so too...
Dissing the Stranger
A couple of months ago I was at a Lutheran seminary—I won’t say which one—for a day-long session with a bunch of other pastors. Thinking it might be interesting to keep other company during lunch in the seminary’s cafeteria, I flagged down a student and asked if I could sit with her. She gladly agreed and we had a nice conversation. But as the table filled in with more students—of many races and both genders—I found myself utterly ignored by the newcomers...
A LCMS Case for Social Justice
Yesterday, in conjunction with Lutheran Social Services of Metropolitan New York, LCMS President Gerald Kieshnick held a round-table forum to discuss issues of church related social service and social justice. Conventional wisdom has long observed that with few notable exceptions (abortion, homosexuality, embryonic stem cell research) the LCMS has shied away from issuing political-ethical missives. In contrast the ELCA seems to produce statements on just about everything, or so the caricatures go...