Everyday Lutherans

Over the past few weeks, I have had several people ask me about the value of a parsonage for me and other clergy.  People have asked me if I would have preferred not being in a parsonage.  Wouldn't it be better to just have the money instead of living in a parsonage? Doesn't it feel like the church is also your landlord? I have enjoyed living in a parsonage.  I have a house that I could not have afforded to live in.  I can enjoy several rooms that I can make into my own and still have the typical rooms within a house. I have enjoyed the many amenities that are available for me within the parsonage so that I can truly focus on being a pastor.  As in a personal home, there are still small things and big things that need to be addressed within the parsonage. Have no fear, I do clean the parsonage and also maintain a number of things; but when the gutters start to fall off, the drive way needs to be repaired, or windows need looking after, I know that...

Hosea 4:1-9 Hear the word of the Lord, O people of Israel; for the Lord has an indictment against the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or loyalty, and no knowledge of God in the land. 2 Swearing, lying, and murder, and stealing and adultery break out; bloodshed follows bloodshed. 3 Therefore the land mourns, and all who live in it languish; together with the wild animals and the birds of the air, even the fish of the sea are perishing. 4 Yet let no one contend, and let none accuse, for with you is my contention, O priest. 5 You shall stumble by day; the prophet also shall stumble with you by night, and I will destroy your mother. 6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. 7 The more they increased, the more they sinned against me; they changed their glory into shame. 8 They feed on the sin of my ...

The Holy Trinity is one of the hardest concepts to understand. Any math teacher will tell you that 1 + 1 + 1 does not equal 1.  If only the disciples had asked Jesus, now wait, how does this all work out?  How are you and Father one? And who is this Holy Spirit going to look like, do and even help us?  Unfortunately, the disciples were more often focused on other things like not getting killed for their beliefs and trying to understand what it was that they were suppose to do to wrestle with the questions that plague some of us. Throughout the centuries, people have tried and struggled with understanding what and how it was that we have this Trinity, yet one God.  It is a story filled with people proclaiming their faith, name calling, trials and a number of killings.  Today we are going to talk about this concept that the church has developed over the years.  Of how we should understand and why understanding God is important.  To determin...

Today on Pentecost, we celebrate the beginning of the church and the ministry that the church is called to do, share the gospel.  The Holy Spirit comes and allows these men to share the Gospel in languages that were not their own. People were gathered together in Jerusalem, people gathered who had been all over the nations and now were in Jerusalem.  Now it is not clear why all of these people were gathered in Jerusalem, however this is around the time the Jewish people would be celebrating Shavout.  A festival in which they honor the time in which the people were given the Ten Commandments.   Pentecost and Shavout have so much in common then.  Here we have both the Law and the Gospel that are given to us each and everyday.  These are the very things that help us live out our lives and also be the church.  The Law is put in place so that we can know that we are in need of God. The Law helps us to understand who we are, what we should be doing and also ...

1 Kings 17: 1-7 Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.” 2 The word of the Lord came to him, saying, 3 “Go from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the Wadi Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. 4 You shall drink from the wadi, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” 5 So he went and did according to the word of the Lord ; he went and lived by the Wadi Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the wadi. 7 But after a while the wadi dried up, because there was no rain in the land. 1 Kings 18: 17-40 17 When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?” 18 He answered, “I have not troubled Israel; but you have, and your father’s house, because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord an...

As a preacher and worship planner, Mothers Day can be difficult for lots of reasons. In brief: for some, it is a day of celebration.  for some, it is a day of grief and sadness. for some, the day has very little meaning, for a variety of reasons. This past Sunday, I did not control the worship service.  The Sunday School kids do everything to share with their mothers, fathers and all those who were gathered. As we were celebrating this day, the children went forth and shared songs, things that they have learned from their parents and teachers at the church, they read the Scripture, and even prayed.  It was marvelous. And even in the midst, they smiled and enjoyed worship. I had prepared a sermon, one that tied in with the Scripture readings and would even work well with the prayers, songs and things that the children were sharing as well but for some reason, I could not shake the feeling of a voice that kept saying that I shouldn't preach that sermon but instead talk abou...

Within the Bible, the beginning says that God created the heavens and the earth along with that, God parted light from darkness. In the beginning….Here we are brought to the very beginning to understand how and why God created this universe and even you.  Within recent years, many have declared that the Big Bang Theory is the most probable theory of how the universe came into being.  However, these two theories then are not in opposition with one another but these two understandings of creation. Couldn’t God create this universe through the means of the Big Bang? What if God started the Big Bang and also created the various life forms within the world?  (How much time determines which theory but then again does time really matter in understanding the world compared to ones lifetime.) So what does that creation have to do with us?  EVERYTHING!! The creation is still happening all around us. Each year, we bear witness to the birth, life, death, and even resurrection wi...

This is a great article on Mother's Day that you should also read with the original here . An open letter to pastors {A non-mom speaks about Mother’s Day} May 10, 2012 by Amy 915 Comments Dear Pastor, Tone can be tricky in writing. Picture me popping my head in your office door, smiling and asking if we could talk for five minutes. I’m sipping on my diet coke as I sit down. You know that I’m not one to shy away from speaking my mind , part of the reason you love me (mostly!), so I’m guessing that internally you brace yourself wondering what might be next. I set my can down and this is what I’d say. A few years ago I sat across from a woman who told me she doesn’t go to church on Mother’s Day because it is too hurtful.  I’m not a mother, but I had never seen the day as hurtful. She had been married, had numerous miscarriages, divorced and was beyond child bearing years. It was like salt in mostly healed wounds to go to church on that day. T...

I did not actually preach this sermon today but instead shared what was on my mind.  “16 One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. 17 While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.” 18 She kept doing this for many days.”  Did you hear it? Did you hear the reason why Paul cast the spirit out of the slave girl?  Paul was very much annoyed with her. Yet she was speaking the truth, she was announcing something that everyone around Paul and Silas should hear.  Yet it was annoying. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to do that, to solve your problems and find the solution so easily as simply telling someone to be quiet. Wouldn’t it be nice to able to know that everything in your life that clear.  I am amazed sometimes, that we forget the basics. I ...