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Review: Sarah Smarsh Bone of the Bone

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  Sarah Smarsh.   Bone of the Bone: Essays on America by a Daughter of the Working Class . Scribner, NY. 2024.   Smarsh offers personal essays that are written and published within 2013-2024. She publishes in a wide variety of venues. One value of this book is that her essays are consolidated into a single place.  A second value is that she writes about her life and family so that the reader may understand that when she writes about class division and identity, government economic and farm policy, business practices, insurance, health care, wages compensation, sexism, etc., it is all personal. These are not mere abstract ideas or policies that are developed. These are ideas and decisions that directly affect real, decent, hardworking people like her and her family.  I appreciated every essay collected in this book. My political and economic preferences and assumptions were challenged. My mind was not changed, but I felt that I was sufficiently argued with. Through Smarsh’s excellent us
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Sermon and Video for 26th Sunday after Pentecost

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Video of Divine Service                                                                Image address 2024 Pentecost 26   Daniel 12:1-3          Hebrews 10:11-25             Mark 13:1-13 I shudder to imagine what horrors that Daniel saw in his vision that he is moved by the Holy Spirit to share with us: “ And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. ”  Daniel has already seen plenty of upheaval. As a young boy he and three of his friends witnessed Jerusalem besieged by King Nebuchadnezzar. In order to get that to stop the king of Jerusalem at the time, hands over temple vessels, parts of the treasury, and promising young people to serve as slaves in King Nebuchadnezzar’s court. Daniel and his young friends are in Babylon, a foreign city and nation, with very different religious symbols, a different language and culture. They were torn from their families and the comfort of all that was familiar to them. They are forced to work for
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Sermon and Video for the 25th Sunday after Pentecost

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Video of Divine Service   Public Domain   2024 Pentecost 25   1 Kings 17:8-16       Hebrews 9:24-28      Mark 12:38-44 Yesterday morning, I received a phone call from a member of one of my former congregations. Bob wanted to let Marie and me know that his dear wife Carol died at 1:30 Saturday morning. In the course of our conversation, Bob reminded me that he and Carol have been married for 69 years.  He said it was going to be quite a change. He did not relish living alone. He does not want to be a widower. They were quite a team. A blessing and support to one another. I am blessed to have known both of them as well as I do.  I share this with you because in our lectionary readings today, we meet two widows. Now, the Bible does talk about widows and widowers. The death of a wife or a husband does bring about a sudden change in one’s life. The change can be crushing and debilitating. The household is not the same. God is concerned that both widow and widowers are looked after by family
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Sermon and Video of Divine Service for 24th Sunday after Pentecost

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Video of Divine Service at St. Luke, Rensselaer 24th Sunday after Pentecost    Deuteronomy 6:1-9  Hebrews 9:11-22  Mark 12:28-37   Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen. Jesus says to the scribe, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” This scribe that Jesus speaks to has just agreed with him about what is the most important commandment out of the 613 commandments that God gave to Moses.  When Jesus answered the question he began with the Shema, the Jewish confession of faith that is found in our first reading.  In the confession, “The Lord is One,” God reveals that there is only one God. There are no others. Unlike the pantheon of gods in Egypt, Caanan, Greece, and Rome.  After the confession that the Lord is one, Jesus says the first commandment. The confession of the Lord God as One and the first commandment demand complete obedience to God. The Lord demands complete devotion through all the love we ca
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Review - Not God's Type: An Atheist Academic Lays Down Her Arms

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  Holly Ordway.  Not God’s Type: An Atheist Academic Lays Down Her Arms . Moody Press, Chicago, 2010. Ignatius Press, San Francisco. 2014.  Inside the book jacket, the following statement is in bold letters at the top of the book description: This is the story of a glorious defeat. Indeed. Ordway chronicles God’s glorious defeat of her fervent atheism. And, because God has a marvelous sense of humor, he uses the most unlikely of people to bring the Gospel to her in a way that disarms her and allows the Word of God, that two-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12), to pierce her heart and mind and bring her to faith in Christ. The defeat took a long time. God’s chosen instrument of communication was Josh, Ordway’s fencing coach. He spoke to her in an intellectual language that she could understand. He exhibited patience and discipline in dealing with Ordway. Not only in fencing, which she readily concedes that she needed, but also during their discussions of the Christian faith. He let her ask quest
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Review - The Liberating Arts: Why We Need Liberal Arts Education

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Jeffrey Bilbro, Jessica Hooten Wilson, and David Henreckson, editors. The Liberating Arts: Why We Need Liberal Arts Education.  Plough Publishing House, 2023.  Reports abound about the financial and enrollment challenges of liberal art colleges. Reports also abound about universities and colleges making drastic changes with their humanities departments. Programs in history, English, foreign and classical languages, philosophy, etc. and the professors that teach them are reduced or eliminated. Some argue this is a good thing.  We should focus on science, engineering, technology, and math instead. Others say, not so fast!  This engaging, thoughtful, and informative collection of brief essays about the liberal arts enters the conversation. These essays are the end result of a movement among practitioners of the liberal arts that began in the spring of 2020 with a series of video and audio conversations and interviews and the development of the website liberatingarts.org. The purpose of th
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Sermon and Video for the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost

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Image:  The Blind Men of Jericho  by Nicolas Poussin, 1650 [Louvre, Paris] Video of Divine Service at St. Luke, Rensselaer   23rd Sunday after Pentecost   Jeremiah 31:7-9     Hebrews 7:23-28    Mark 10:46-52   Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen.    This past Monday and Tuesday I was at the All-District Pastor Conference. Before the conference began on Monday, there was a “New to the District” orientation led by President Stuckwisch. He arranged for a number of people that worked in the District Office, as well as the Vice Presidents, and others to be at the meeting so that we can attach names to faces. We also heard President Stuckwisch’s emphasis in his work at President of the District. He exhorts pastors and congregations to become uniform in doctrine and practice, especially centering worship around the use of the Lutheran Service Book and the practice of Close-Communion.    I find these kinds of orie
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