Category Archives: For Pastors Only
A Tale of Two Jackasses
One of my favorite apocryphal stories about Jesus goes like this: Jesus, Mother Mary, and Joseph are fleeing the wrath of King Herod heading for Egypt. They are all riding on the back of a donkey. Joseph becomes impatient … Continue reading
Almost a Christian
In the movie 300, Leonidas is leaving with his small band of men to fight the invading million man army of the Persians. He bids his wife goodbye. As he marches away to certain death she calls out to … Continue reading
A Happy Christmas
Driving from Texas to Michigan in December 1977 John Lennon’s “Happy Christmas” seemed to be on all the radio stations. At that time in my twenty-year-old life Lennon’s melancholy lyrics particularly the line “so this is Christmas, and what … Continue reading
Bart Simpson is Right
Bart Simpson cleared it all up for me. I’m not a regular watcher of the goggled-eyed little guy but I happened to catch a re-run of a Christmas episode. Dad, Homer, had only received 13 dollars for a part-time job … Continue reading
You Need Strongs Legs to Stand up Under Good Times
That’s a proverb Luther quotes. He says what is to be feared is not the trying, difficult, despairing times, but the good times. The Church has always believed this. From this sort of theology comes the oft quoted remark, … Continue reading
An Answer to Pastor David Rohde’s “Why Stay?”
When I learned that a paper on why to stay in the LCMS was being given at a free conference in Brenham, Texas, I told one of my members he should go and hear it. He is contemplating going to … Continue reading
A Modest Proposal
Now that it looks as if there will be no special convention for the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod in 2009, I have a modest proposal.
The Napoleon of Notting Hill
The Napoleon of Notting Hill is a delightful G.K. Chesterton story about a man who for a joke gathers together leaders of various London neighborhoods and tells them they are to regard their neighborhoods as countries. All know it is … Continue reading
Jesus Says
I don’t know if the LSB bulletin inserts have changed this or not. One can only hope. The Gospel for this past Sunday in the old three year series is prefaced by the addition of [Jesus said]. I realize … Continue reading
Show Me The Potatoes
This article was originally written by me in 1999. The phrase “show me the money” was made popular by the movie “Jerry MaGuire.” MaGuire is a sport’s agent. One of his football players threatens to jump to another agent. MaGuire … Continue reading