Letters On The Page

Collect : O God, You declare Your mighty power above all in showing mercy and pity. Mercifully grant us such a measure of Your grace that we may obtain Your gracious promises and be made partakers of your heavenly treasures; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.    The Epistle reading for the Wednesday of the 11 th  Sunday after Pentecost is from 1 Corinthians, the 12 th  chapter .                                            Corinthians 12:1-11 12  Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed.  2  You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led.  3  Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “J...

 Here is a thought provoking conversation with Jared Henderson and James Marriott moderated by Freddie Sayers Unherd.  

Monday morning I was in Goodwill looking at their books for sale. I had a small list of titles I was hoping to find at a reduced price. I was surprised to find this:  Didn't expect to find that in the stacks at the local Goodwill store! You just never know...

Video of Divine Liturgy at St. Luke, Rensselaer     2025-Wednesday of Pentecost 10 Collect of the Day : Let Your merciful ears, O Lord, be open to the prayers of Your humble servants; and that they may obtain their petitions, make them to ask such things as shall please You; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen. 1 Corinthians 10:6-13 6  Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as   they did.   7  Do not be idolaters   as some of them were; as it is written,   “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.”   8  We must not indulge in sexual immorality   as some of them did, and   twenty-three thousand fell in a single day.   9  We must not put Christ   to the test,   as some of them did and   were destroyed by serpents,   10  nor grumble,   as some ...

Video of Divine Liturgy at St. Luke, Rensselaer 11 th  Sunday after Pentecost    Isaiah 66:18-23  Hebrews 12:4-24  Luke 13:22-30 O Lord, your word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen.   I suspect that many of us have a fixed idea or image of Jesus in our heads. I know that I have been affected by pictures of Jesus carrying a sheep on his shoulders and Jesus sitting with children. These images come right out of the Gospels. They are an accurate portrayal of scenes and words of Jesus. As a young boy when I saw the picture of Jesus carrying the sheep on his shoulders, I knew that Jesus would pick me up and carry me to safety. Likewise, as a little boy, when I saw the picture of Jesus sitting with the little children and talking with them, I knew that while other adults may shush or ignore me, Jesus would always want to hear what I ha...

Jess Walter, So Far Gone   I enjoyed this book and stayed up way too late finishing it. The main character, Rhys Kinnick, is a retired journalist who suffered through the long and sad. decline of print journalism. After a fight with his son-in-law, he withdraws to 40 acres of wild land of which he is now the third generation owner. He became a recluse. He repaired the land. He read. He wrote. His tranquility was disturbed one morning with the appearance of his grandchildren on his porch. Their mother, his daughter, has left them.  Rhys takes temporary custody of his children who are shortly thereafter taken from him violently by friends of the daughter's husband. Rhys reaches out to the few friends he has for help. This leads him into a series of adventures. I did not see the murder coming. I was surprised by it.  This story contains the heart break of family disfunction, drug addiction, a militarized church, bi-polar ex girlfriend, bi-polar former police officer, a hippi...

Nicholas Carr.  Superbloom: How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart . W. W. Norton & Company, 2025.  The emphasis in his previous book  The Shallows  was on how regular usage of computers and the Internet were changing the way our brains work. This book focuses on how our heavy usage of social media and Artificial Intelligence is doing the opposite of creating informed citizens who use the Internet to positively connect with others and strengthen our democracy. Instead, a whole host of social problems have developed including an increase in mental illness. Artificial Intelligence is not helping as it is easy to manipulate and can be used to spread misinformation quickly.  This present moment did not happen in an instant. In fact, it was predicted by Charles Horton Cooley who was born in 1864. Carr explains Cooley’s significance and takes us through the ideas and the technology breakthroughs in communication since the 19 th  century that lead us to ...

  Video of Divine Service, St. Luke, Rensselaer   2025 Proper 15C – 10 th  Sunday after Pentecost   Jeremiah 23:16-29  Hebrews 11:17-31; 12:1-3  St. Luke 12:49-56 O Lord, your Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen.  Way back in the ancient days before cell phones, home computers, and Internet, I sat amongst my peers in a catechism class at Faith Lutheran Church, Geneva, IL. I was as excited as the next boy to be sitting in yet another class after a day of classes, but this time at church. But, unbeknownst to ignorant me, there were things to learn. I remember when Pastor Rossin started us out in the Apostles Creed. He had us turn to the second half of the catechism book which contains the Explanation of the Small Catechism. In response to the question “Who is God?” we read together the long list of words that describe the attribu...

Video of Divine Service   Wednesday of the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost   Collect of the Day : Grant to us, Lord, the Spirit to think and do always such things as are right, that we, who cannot do anything that is good without You, may be enabled by You to live according to your will; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.   The Epistle for Wednesday of the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost is from Romans, the 8 th  chapter.             Romans 8:12-17   12  So then, brothers,   we are debtors,   not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.   13  For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you   put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.   14  For all who are   led by the Spirit of God are   sons   of God.   15  For   you did not receiv...

Divine Service at St. Luke, Rensselaer, IN   The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost  Genesis 15:1-6    Hebrews 11:1-16      Luke 12:22-40   O Lord, your words are a lamp to our feet and a light unto our path. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen.    These words of Jesus about anxiety, selling possessions, and being ready for the coming Son of Man, are not isolated sayings. At this moment he is standing before thousands of people. The words we hear today are a continuation of last Sunday’s reading that focused on the Parable of the Rich Fool. We recall that Jesus introduced this Parable because of a request from someone in the crowd. “ Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. ”    The Parable is for everyone who is there. It serves as a word of law that convicts those listening who have intentionally or inadvertently placed t...

Wednesday of the 8th Sunday after Pentecost Video of Divine Service            Collect of the Day : O God, whose never-failing providence orders all things both in heaven and earth, we humbly implore You to put away from us all hurtful things and to give us those things that are profitable for us; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen. The Epistle on this Wednesday after the 8 th  Sunday of Pentecost is from Romans, the 6 th  chapter.            Romans 6:19-23 19  I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.  20  For when you were slaves of sin, you were free...