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Showing posts from July, 2016

she said words alone could never save us

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& then last night she cried and told us about Jesus The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke the 11th Chapter ! Unfortunately every church seems to have at least one… You know, those places where the carpet has seen better days.  Those marks where the carpet began pulling apart. The spot where the carpet is nearly threadbare. Good taste suggests replacement, or at least repair. Lutherans, though, we tend to be negligent in that area. So those marks, stay. Thinning even more after yet another year… And no, I’m not talking about the path to the coffee pot.   What I am talking about is that place we used to call “the crossing.” These days, we’ve lost our distinct vocabulary. So we have no name for that place in the sanctuary. You know, that place where the healthy walk up to receive communion without a second though. That place where the rambunctious youngsters, distract the congregation as the pastor tries to give a youth sermon. That place where those

i want to taste the taste of being face to face

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with common grace A sermon from conclusion to Galatians : “May I never boast of anything … Except the cross…” You’ve got to watch out for those exceptions. The proverbial catch , as it were. There’s always at least one… “May I never boast of anything ,” declares Paul. “ Except the cross,” he adds. Almost as an afterthought…. It’s quite the thing to say.  Not because boasting in something like the cross, a legal tool to inflict punishment, humiliation and torture would have been outrageous to the ears of any self respecting Galatian. That would have been like putting a guillotine on a family crest! No, what’s truly remarkable about Paul’s refusal to boast in anything except the cross, is the exception he’s making form himself. The exception… And you’ve got to watch out for them, those exception clauses… This letter we’ve spent the last five weeks in, Paul has been telling the folks at First Lutheran in Galatia that now they must learn to look at