I don’t know what possessed me. . . . . . When I said that . . . When I did that . . . Or when I could not restrain my hand from doing harm; my mouth from uttering hurt. What Jesus encounters in the Capernaum synagogue―a man possessed―stretches contemporary credibility, though anything demonic is fascinating. What most of us know about possession—the Capernaum sort—is what we’ve seen from Ghost Busters or The Exorcist or The Amityville Horror or... Read more
I went into the guest bathroom this morning, just this morning, and found wiry black hair in the sink. One of my grandsons left it. I have two biracial grandsons, so I can’t say which one left it. It didn’t bother me; it never does any more. Still, it was a mild PTSD moment, shoving my memories back to college, back to Wayland, my black college roommate and his wiry hair, and our arguments about cleaning the sink and how... Read more
The pastor that loomed largest in my childhood memory was Pr. Harold H. Brokering. He just died but a few days ago at age 93. The news hit me with some strength. I preached for his 1988 40th anniversary of ordination. Coincidentally, I was also preaching for the 20th ordination anniversary Pr. Glenn Isernhagen, my pastor in 1976 as I entered seminary. Brokering and Isernhagen were serving the same parish together. They were 20 years apart and maybe the best... Read more
A little marked anniversary is January 30, 1973. That is the day, ten days after Richard Nixon’s second inauguration, that G. Gordon Liddy and James W. McCord, Jr. were convicted of conspiracy, burglary, and wiretapping for breaking into the Watergate complex housing the Democratic National Committee headquarters. Five other men aiding the break-in plead guilty to lesser charges earlier. A local journalist friend recently handed me three Watergate books by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein and promised – maybe threatened... Read more
This son of David has no name, none that the author of Second Samuel thought to record. Yet this son of David will die for David’s sin. (2 Sam. Chapters 11-12) The story of the unnamed son of David is disturbing, and disgusting in scale. It starts with David, great king of Israel, and it ends with him, him and a son of no name. Usually the whole tale is told as a romance, David and Bathsheba, as if in this... Read more
We pray that He remembers us, even as in dying we may not remember Him. Just lately emerging from shrinking forests and forced to find habitat on the savannah, our hominid ancestors became human and acquired a sense of self. We awakened one morning, so it seems, and if we could not say who we were, we at least could say we were not like the animals. We knew that we would die and the animals did not. We possessed an... Read more
Autonomous self-driving Ubers won’t be taking you on shopping trips or cross-country vacations before 2030. That is because “artificial intelligence” is only one of those things, artificial. It is not the other. Oh, I’m not a Luddite, but I do think I’m something of a realist. They have basic operational shortcomings that make them dangerous: They go blind in bad weather. Cameras can be obscured by rain, snow, dust. When lane lines disappear the vehicles don’t know where they are... Read more
I like the animals. I take note of all the critters that amble through our yard and I delight in the encounters. There’s something enchanting about it, as if I have unexpectedly bumped into the numinous. We live in an urban subdivision in Kansas City, Missouri bounded by some major streets. Still, I have encountered a deer on the porch, peering in through the front door. Her two fawns were lazing on the lawn. My daughter driving home from school... Read more
I have an email asking why, as The Vatican II Lutheran, I have so far said little about Luther, Lutherans, or even Vatican II. No special reason; I’ve simply found other things to mention. But for the emailer, Marcia, girl, this is for you. 1) Nail his 95 Theses on indulgences to the door of the Wittenberg Castle church. This is a fable. Luther himself never spoke of the incident. In fact the story is not mentioned until after Luther’s... Read more
The March for Life demands a new demeanor to underscore the reality of America’s national shame. John Stowe, bishop of Lexington, Kentucky, is right. MAGA caps are not the thing to wear to the March for Life. Even if someone tries to rebrand them―Make America Good Again―they are beyond salvaging. Toss them. Displays like that, the bishop wrote, suggest endorsement of a president who, incidentally, “denigrates the lives of immigrants, refugees and people from countries that he describes with indecent... Read more
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