The beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 is called the Beatitudes. Jesus sat down to teach the crowds which were following him and said: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the …
Monthly Archives: January 2017
With the current refugee crisis and immigration issues at the forefront of the news, I thought it might be helpful to provide a Lutheran perspective on these. I’ll caution up-front, though, that I won’t be providing “the answer.” Instead, what I hope to do is provide a theological framework for thinking about the issues. I also want to stress that …
Dietrich Bonhoeffer is one of a number of theologians who have greatly impacted my own life and faith. In his company I would also put men like C.S. Lewis, Martin Luther, St. Augustine, and the early Church Fathers (e.g. Tertullian, Ireneaus, etc…). Each of them has given me something valuable. To C.S. Lewis I owe thanks for a simple explanation of …
Many years ago, I had to go to Phoenix, Arizona. It was in the summer, and the temperature was about 114 degrees. When I got there, I rented a car and went into the parking garage to find it. The garage was covered and therefore shaded from the sun. So, when I got in the car and drove out of …
(The following is from the introduction to my edition of Tertullian’s Apology, available at Amazon) Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus was a Christian writer who lived in the Roman province of Africa (Carthage) at the end of the second century and the beginning of the third century AD. We know him better as Tertullian. Possibly trained as a Roman lawyer, he would eventually …
A long time ago, when I was ending my undergraduate education in college, I started to apply for jobs, hoping to find one before I graduated. I ended up getting an interview at a place that was basically a recruiting firm. I went for the interview, and when I got there I had to sit in a waiting area in the …
(The following is from the introduction to my edition of Justin Martyr’s First and Second Apologies, available at Amazon) Justin Martyr (also known as Justinus) was a mid-second century Christian writer. A Greek-speaking Gentile, he was born in Flavia Neapolis (present day Nablus) in Samaria and was martyred around 165 AD in Rome. He was familiar with Greek philosophy and …
Today in the Church Year we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus. There is actually a close connection between Jesus’s baptism in Matthew 3 and the first act of God’s creation in Genesis 1. In fact, there are parallels in this section of Matthew’s Gospel with the first few chapters of Genesis. In Genesis, the order of things is that God creates everything, …
Today marks the end of the 12 days of Christmas, which began on December 25th and ends on January 5th. Tomorrow, we will celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany of our Lord Jesus Christ. The lectionary reading for the Feast focuses on the visit of the Magi to worship the Lord by bringing him gifts (Matthew 2:1-12). Indeed, many of …
Today within the Church Year is the celebration of the feast of the “Name and Circumcision of Jesus,” sometimes simply called the “Circumcision of Jesus.” The Gospel reading for the feast is really short, one sentence in fact. It’s from Luke 2:21: “And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given …