We grieve and mourn with all of those who lost loved ones in the attacks in Baghdad, Beirut, and Paris. We grieve and mourn with refugees fleeing violence and death in their countries, looking for anywhere at all that might be safe. We grieve and mourn with everyone in our own town who suffer daily with needs as basic as food. And as we grieve, we cry out, “How long, Lord? How long?”
Tag: Lutheran
A Partnership Dies Too Soon
Today, the sixteen-year partnership between Trinity Lutheran Seminary and Bexley Hall Episcopal Seminary came to an end when the Board of Directors of the Bexley Seabury Seminary Federation voted unanimously to terminate the ecumenical relationship between the seminaries and move all of BSSF's operations back to Chicago. BSSF says it's for the best. Trinity hasn't … Continue reading A Partnership Dies Too Soon
Life Hurts
This is what happens when we take a legalistic approach to any of Jesus's words and use them as weapons against each other. Believe it or not, the world is very infrequently black and white. Instead, it is a nuanced collection of greys. Ethics and morality are complicated, and anyone who tries to tell you otherwise, that tries to make everything easy and clear and summariz-able in a little sound byte, is selling you something.
Don’t You Dare
"We draw lines in the sand all throughout our lives: big lines, little ones, thick lines, thin lines, deep lines shallow lives. Yes, we even draw lines around Jesus, lines that keep “others” out, as if Jesus needed our protection."
Mercy Triumphs Over Judgment
We need to listen to the stories of non-white people in our own church when they tell us that our church is not a welcoming place for anyone who isn't of German or Scandinavian descent. We need to listen to the stories of non-white people when they tell us that they experience sanctioned and consistent discrimination and prejudice leveled against them, discrimination that we ourselves are blind to. We need to listen to their frustration and their pain for what it is—hurt and pain.
Living an Ecumenical Life 