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What Became of the Shepherds’ Flock?
In his sermon for Christmas Eve, our pastor, preaching on St. Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus Christ, wondered aloud what the shepherds did with their flock after they had heard the angels’ assurance of the birth of the Savior and their promise of the sign the shepherds would find swaddled in the manger.…
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Practice and Perseverance
Introduction St. Mark’s on the Campus Episcopal Church, Lincoln, Neb., celebrates the Holy Eucharist on Tuesdays at 12:30 p.m. The parish’s rector, Father Jerry Thompson, asked me to lead worship on Tuesday, July 10, 2012. The liturgy features the feast of St. Benedict of Nursia, Abbot of Monte Cassino (c. A.D. 540), transferred from July…
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Christmas Reflections
Memories are sometimes fluid and elusive. We can come to believe that we recall an event in the kind of vivid detail that only arises from personal experience. But as we turn the memory over and over in our mind’s hands, and look at it from different angles, it gets hard to tell when our…
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Waiting and Acting for the Kingdom
Introduction The people of Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, Hickman, Neb., have organized a Spirit-Driven Task Force, bringing together almost forty members who have committed to a year of study, prayer, reflection, and deliberation to discern how God is calling the congregation to renewal for the sake of his mission. This is the fifteenth…
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“Preferring Absolutely Nothing to Christ”
Introduction St. Mark’s on the Campus Episcopal Church celebrates the Eucharist on Tuesdays. Father Jerry Thompson invited me to lead worship on July 12, 2011. As is the parish’s practice, the service remembers a saint or other figure, transferring an observance if one does not fall on that particular date. Since July 11 is the…
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Commitment to the One
Introduction The people of Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, Hickman, Neb., have organized a Spirit-Driven Task Force, bringing together almost three dozen members who have committed to a year of study, prayer, reflection, and deliberation to discern how God is calling the congregation to renewal for the sake of his mission. This is the…
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Encounter on the Way
Introduction The people of Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, Hickman, Neb., have organized a Spirit-Driven Task Force, bringing together almost three dozen members who have committed to a year of study, prayer, reflection, and deliberation to discern how God is calling the congregation to renewal for the sake of his mission. This is the…
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The Will of the Father, the Way of the Cross
Introduction The Spirit Driven Task Force is a lay-led group of almost three dozen members of Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, Hickman, formed to pray and study together and to examine the life of the congregation in the light of God’s guidance in Scripture and Tradition. The group held its first gathering on Sunday,…
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We Wait with Patience
Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Beatrice, Neb., celebrated the Third Sunday of Advent, Dec. 12, 2010. + + + Readings Isaiah 35:1–10 Luke 1:46b–55 (antiphon v. 47) James 5:7–10 Matthew 11:2–11 + + + Prayer Lord God, from your servant, Mary, we learn how to wait and to watch and listen with patience and faith for…
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Mary’s Song of Reversals
Introduction The Congregation Council at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Beatrice, Neb., where I am serving as interim pastor, opens its monthly meetings with devotions. These are the thoughts for the December 2010 meeting. The Magnificat is the Psalmody appointed for the Third Sunday of Advent, Dec. 12, 2010. The council read it antiphonally in choirs.…