Gottesblog

We Lutherans are often accused of heresy by Roman Catholics by means of a clever and ironic rhetorical trick. Roman Catholics will sometimes claim that Jesus founded the Catholic Church, and therefore the Catholic Church is the only true church.

A woman “pastor” (Purpose Church, Pamona, California) will be speaking at an event at an LCMS church to teach the ladies about what it means to be a Christian woman.

I love our country, and I love the quirks of our culture - as well as its many unique subcultures. But we Americans often have a cloying habit of presuming that everyone in the world must surely think like we do. We are often ignorant of history to boot - and when it comes to our understanding of the Church - even of Lutheran Christianity - we sometimes embarrass ourselves.

There was a recent dust-up online (imagine that!) involving the question of who should commune the pastor during the Sunday Divine Service.

Church musician Jonathan Aigner wrote a piece at Patheos entitled “Why are you still going to a church that does bad worship?”

A fellow LCMS pastor recently stated:

The Rev. David Petersen’s excellent recent post about Pre-Lent made me think about the oft-levied false charge that Gottesdienst approaches liturgical tradition in a legalistic way.

2nd Sunday after the Epiphany

Eric R. Andræ

St. John 2:1-11. 

In the name of + Jesus. Amen.

Soaked and bloody. 

Soaked and bloody…is our Lord – last week baptized in the Jordan River, his hour has not yet come, but soon, soon he will indeed drench the earth with his blood shed from the cross for the sins of the world. Soaked and bloody is our Lord. Soaked and bloody is his Word throughout, soaked and bloody is all of God’s story with & among his people.  It’s all about water and blood, blood and water.