Letters On The Page

Thank you to Pastor Stephens for the invitation to preach at the evening festival at Emmaus Ev. Lutheran Church, South Bend, IN; and, to the good people of Emmaus for your encouragement and steadfastness. 2023 August 29 Decollation of St. John the Baptist   Jeremiah 1:17-19  17  But you, dress yourself for work; [ a ]  arise, and say to them everything that I command you. Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them. 18  And I, behold, I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of the land.  19  They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, declares the Lord, to deliver you.”   Hebrews 11:36-39  36  Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even   chains and imprisonment.   37  They were stoned, they we...

“A proper education enables young people to put their lives in order, which means knowing what things are more important than other things; it means putting first things first.”    Wendell Berry

There are many different responses out there to the saturation of our culture with technology usage and information overload.  I found this group's response to be instructive.   The Postman Pledge  

2023 Tenth Sunday after Trinity Jeremiah 7:1-11; Psalm 92; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; Luke 19:41-48 This week I came across a book list called  Recommendations for the Intellectual and Curious . I am no intellectual, but I am curious. So, I gave the list a careful look.  It has a section called “ Books you will never be graded on except by Reality .” The books in that section include St. Augustine’s Confessions, works by Plato, Thomas A Kempis and Cicero.  The section also includes the Biblical books: The Epistles of St. Paul, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Genesis, the Psalms, and the Gospel of John.  My eyes caught this list because the prophet Jeremiah is included.   What does the compiler of this list mean with “graded by Reality?” As I understand what God says to us in His Holy Word, God is the ultimate Reality by which we shall be graded or to use a Biblical word: judged.  The grade is Pass or Fail.  There is no in-between. ...

  This is a book that consists of Letters of Recommendation. The author of these recommendations is one Jason Fitger, a frustrated and often caustic Professor of Creative Writing and Literature in a small midwestern college.  As we learn from loads of extra information that Prof. Fitger shares with the recipients of these letters, whether they need or want it or not, sentences that reveal Fitger as opinionated and frustrated with his college, colleagues, relationship status, students, and his own writing development and reception.     As these Letters of Recommendation ooze snark, disdain, sarcasm, passive aggressive comments, and "did he really write that?" comments, many of the Letters are wickedly hilarious. They also lead the reader to ponder what is going on in education these days.     Prof. Fitger notes that money is clearly being lavishly spent on the sciences and social sciences while the Humanities are merely being kept alive....

Lende, Heather.   Find the good: Unexpected life lessons from a small-town obituary writer . Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2015.   A positive, upbeat, delightful read.  Heather lives with her family in isolated and remote Haines, Alaska. Haines has a population of two thousand.  Heather has for years served as the obituary writer for the local newspaper.  In this book we learn of her special way of interacting with the family of the deceased and what she hopes to convey through the written remembrances of community members.  In a town of two thousand, she may not know everyone personally, but chances are that she has met them or their family and friends at some point.  There are not many degrees of separation in a town of that size.  If nothing else, she probably has heard of them. Whether the stories or information she has heard is accurate in entirely different matter altogether, but there is a closeness in a small tow...

The July/August 2023 issue of Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity arrived recently and is filled with the usual high quality, thoughtful, informative articles that it always brings.  One brief article has me thinking about future wedding gifts to the newly married.  In an article entitled Homeward Bound Books, Just Hall explains why he purchased these particular twenty books for a newlywed.  Giving books for newlyweds? While I think books are appropriate for all occasions, celebratory or not, I had not thought of giving books to newlyweds. In my experience, books are never on the wedding register for suggested gifts.  Mr. Hall begins his article with this explanation.   “I recently gave a friend a wedding gift of twenty books as a cultural contribution to his new home and personal library.  I wrote a letter explaining why I chose them.  What follows is an edited version of the letter.”  The books he gave cover the ...