Just as Important
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. These two commandments here are pretty interesting. I think it shows the two tendencies that most people generally fall into. Read more...
I'm *Not Tired Yet
I don’t know about y’all, but there’s a lot of noise in my world right now. Politics — almost always a bunch of clanging symbols — is in high gear. The pandemic, still running wild across the world, is — as almost all things seem to be — a divisive often partisan topic. Race is a topic. Police are a topic. Riots, looting, and vandalism are topics. Gender & sexuality didn’t stay in 2019, either, and decided to join 2020’s party. Read more...
Christians & the 2020 Presidential Election
There is no Christian candidate in this presidential election. Though I personally cannot look past his poor moral character and inappropriate use of Holy Scripture and the Church, many faithful Christians will vote for Trump. Many faithful Christians will vote for Biden. Other faithful Christians will vote for the Solidarity Party or for other political parties. The &Campaign points a way forward for faithful Christian political engagement in all areas of the political landscape. Read more...
Die Taufe: Frisches Wasser im finstern Tal
Freunde, wir leben in schwierige Zeiten. Das letztes mal, dass wir zusammen waren, war es 1. März. Der Frühling war endlich da. Als ich bei Memorial Lutheran alles aufgerüstet hat, kamen vielen vorbei an den Fahrrädern. Die Nachbarschaft war voller Lärm von Rasenmäher, Kinder, und Vögel. Ein Marienkäfer hat mir besucht im Narthex. Winter war vorbei und die Welt war voller Hoffnung. Zwei Tage später kam der Tornado. Die Macht Gottes Schöpfung war klar zu sehen. Read more...
Baptism: Fresh Water in the Valley
Friends, we live in difficult times. The last time we were together was March 1st. Spring was finally here. When I setup everything at Memorial Lutheran, many people were out on their bicycles. The neighborhood was full of noise from lawn mowers, children, and birds. A ladybug visited me in the narthex. Winter was over and the world was full of hope. The tornado came two days later. The power of God’s creation was clearly seen. Read more...
Drafts 5 Sermon Prep with LectServe
Drafts 5 for Mac recently introduced the ability to do some basic scripting in JavaScript as an action in the application. Each time I prepare a sermon, the first step for me is to lookup the readings for the week on LectServe and then paste the readings into Drafts where I can start doing sermon preparation and, eventually, write my sermon. As soon as I saw actions and scripting introduced for Drafts, I knew I’d have to automate my sermon prep process. Read more...
Angst vor den Tod
Während der Adventszeit haben wir „O Komm, O Komm Immanuel“ gesungen. In die Weihnachten sangen wir von eine „Stille Nacht“ ob sich Christus geboren war. Am 6. Januar fingen wir mit der Epiphanie — oder die Erscheinung des Herrn — an. Ein Retter wird kommen. Ein Retter ist gekommen. Gekommen, aber nicht wie wir gedacht haben. Wir stehen jetzt in die Mitte der Epiphaniezeit. Die drei Weisen aus dem Morgenland sind schon gekommen. Read more...
The Toddler Evening Office
We started a pattern of family prayer back in Advent. Each night after dinner, I’d lead the family in prayer. Oliver (23 months) would listen(-ish) and join in the amens and Rosemary (~4) would chime in with the responses — “Hear our Prayer” — and lead the Lord’s Prayer. Having established a habit of prayer after dinner, I wanted to keep it moving forward even after the Advent calendars were empty and the wreath was put away. Read more...
His Word has Made it So
“Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19 (RSV) In this room alone, how many sermons have we heard on this passage? Dozens? Maybe even hundreds? And, yet, these words are impactful each time. Why? There are two main reasons, I think. The first is guilt. The second is hope. For many people, their hearts sink at hearing this passage. They remember times they were called by Christ, but did not listen. Read more...
Review: Basis Bibel Auslese
Back in October I launched a German-language worship service in Nashville, Tennessee. In the lead-up to launching St. Mang, I knew I’d need to focus on my German to get back to the point where I could write a sermon in German each month. I immediately switched to German for my morning prayers using the 1984 Luther translation. Though there is a lot I like about Luther’s translation in German, it is not a great entry point into theological/ecclesial German. Read more...
Eine königliche Familie
Jesus war geboren in Bethlehem zur Zeit des Königs Herodes. In Judäa gab es nur ein König. Aus der Sicht die jüdische Bevölkerung, Herodes war ein Verräter. Herodes hat - in Name des Römisches Reich - sein eigenes Volk erobert. Der war Vasallenkönig unter Kaiser. Als Vasallenkönig, verlangt Herodes Steuer für Rom auf die Leute. Verräter, Steuereinnehmer, Knecht unter Kaiser. Herodes war kein David. Er wusste es und sein Volk wussten es auch. Read more...
Jederzeit Bereit Sein
In mein Haus ist es kein Geheimnis dass ich kein Fan von den säkularen Weihnachten bin. Ich bin außerhalb der Kirche erwachsen. Als ich ein Kind war, liebte ich die Weihnachten. Die Musik. Die schönen Farben. Nostalgie für eine „bessere Zeit.“ Die Ideen von Freude, Familie, und Frieden. Und, natürlich, die Geschenke. Aber dann, antwortete ich den Anruf Jesu. Die Weihnachten, kam ich zu verstehen, war nicht nur eine Erinnerung von einem netten Mann der schönen Sprüche ausgegeben hat und eine gute Lebensweise ausgeführt hat. Read more...
Advent: Always be Ready
In my home it is no secret that I am no fan of secular Christmas. I was raised outside the Church. When I was a kid, I loved Christmas. The music. The beautiful colors. Nostalgia for a “better time.” The idea of joy, family, and peace. And, naturally, presents. But, then, I answered the call of Jesus. Christmas, I came to understand, was not just a remembrance of a nice man that gave out pretty sayings and showed an examplary way of life. Read more...
Advent Family Prayer
For the last several years, I’ve been trying to find a short and simple Advent liturgy to do each night around the advent-wreath. The family form of Evening Prayer from the 2019 Prayer Book is good, but it is still a little long for my very young children and still requires me to find short readings for each night. I wanted a resource that was short and simple for my young family, but still retained the character of the daily offices. Read more...
Use Localtime in Debian Slim
Sometimes you need to run cron or other applications in your Debian container that rely on the system running in localtime. In Debian 9, switching to localtime wasn’t the easiest thing in the world. With Debian 10, however, you can switch your container to another timezone with just a few commands. First you need to install tzdata. RUN apt-get install tzdata -y Then you need to make a link between the timezone you want to move to in /usr/share/zoneinfo and /etc/localtime. Read more...
