March 2025
Building Up the Culture of the Family of God: From the Family of Faith to a Holy Place Although Exodus follows immediately from Genesis, there seems to be little connection between the two in the kind of story that is being told. At the beginning of Exodus, Moses does remind us very briefly of […]
December 2025
Building up the Culture of the Family of God The cultural traditions of Christmas are enduring through generations. There are many people today who still celebrate Christmas in culturally recognizable ways, even after they have long since abandoned the Christian faith. Cultural traditions sink deep roots into our hearts and minds. In the case of […]
November 2025
Building Up the Culture of the Family of GodWhat is Culture, and Why Does It Matter? God took forty years to purge the children of Israel from the cultural and theological customs that they had learned in Egypt. God used the ten plagues of His judgment of Egypt to debunk the idolatry of Israel’s slave-masters […]
October (Fall) 2025
Where are the homemakers? Katie Luther was an educated woman. She was brought to the convent as a young child and learned her Latin, in which she worshipped daily, and the basics of education. Her appearances in Martin Luther’s Table Talks reveal her wit and wisdom. When she and Martin were married, she became the […]
May 2025
Reformation 500: Marriage or Peasants’ Rebellion The Year of Our Lord 1525 was a monumental and pivotal year for the Lutheran Reformation. We have already seen how Luther was engaging the non-Lutheran reformers on the Lord’s Supper, as he would continue to do for the following three years especially. We will hear more about the […]
February (Winter) 2025
Reformation 500: Against the Heavenly Prophets It was because of Luther’s coworker, Andreas Bodenstein von Karlstadt, that Luther had returned from the Wartburg Castle in March of 1522. Karlstadt had proposed rapid and radical changes to the liturgy and church life of Wittenberg. He soon left Wittenberg and became a proponent of a radical reformation. […]
October/November (Fall) 2024
The Christian in Community: And Is Man a Lord? The impulse to give names to things is fully human. God brought the animals to Adam to see what he would call them, and whatever he called them, that was their name. The naming of things obligates us to use words truthfully. We are commanded by […]
August 2024
The Christian in Community “What do you have that you did not receive?” Paul asks the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 4:7). We confess God as Creator not only because it is true but because it identifies the ground reality of our lives: We are creatures. We have our bodies and souls with all their powers, and […]
July(Summer) 2024
Japan Free Conference I have reported with a smile that it took my wife Angela and me three days to travel to Ja-pan and one hour to return. It’s the first time that I have crossed the date line into the Far East. I was asked by LCMS International Missions, the Asia Region, to be […]
April (Spring) 2024
The Christian in Community The book of Exodus records the creation of a community. It will help us understand what a profoundly important work God is doing in Exodus to observe the contrary impulses of our own day. It is a sad fact that so many people see each other as objects to be used […]