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Editorials
Up one levelA Field Guide to the Missouri Synod
At the 2007 LCMS convention a resolution entitled “To Keep Unity of Spirit in Bond of Peace” passed with nearly 90% in favor. It rather innocuously directed circuits of the synod to share in a common Bible and study of the Lutheran Confessions called “Faithful and Afire” prepared by various leaders within synod. Not terribly newsworthy. In the course of the debate over the resolution, however, an amendment was proposed to “acknowledge theological differences.” That amendment failed with 49% of the vote. All of which led one commentator to observe that, since the vote to show our unity was split nearly 50/50, the disunity at the very least is a divide between those who think we are unified and those who do not...
The Epistle of Eutyche
It is with greatest pleasure that LF presents the world premiere publication of the recently discovered Epistle of Eutyche, dug from the ruins of the Abbey of Three Marys (mosaic fragments on the site suggest Jesus’ mother, Mary Magdalene, and Mary of Bethany) in southern Croatia. Internal evidence suggests that Theophila was the abbess of the house and received the letter from a fellow abbess by the name of Eutyche in response to an earlier letter from Theophila. Theophila’s original letter so far has not been discovered, though its contents is summarized at some length in the present epistle...
Mary and the Incarnation of Hope
We have a Mary tree in our neighborhood. More accurately, we have a tree on which the image of the Virgin Mary has appeared. A little over two years ago, a car crashed into the tree, causing significant damage to both car and tree. A few months later the elderly owner of the tree was on his roof doing some work when he slipped and fell off. His neighbor across the street heard the scream and looked out the window. There standing next to the fallen man was the tree with the image of the Virgin Mary revealed in the accident-damaged trunk. The elderly man made a miraculous (after a thirty-day hospital stay) recovery, and the tree has been a place of local pilgrimage for the devout and the curious alike ever since...
Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace
I’ve been noticing lately how all around us in the mainline churches military imagery is being carefully and quietly plucked out of our worship language. Partly it is (cowardly) discomfort with the violence and apocalypticism of the Scriptures. Partly it is (sensible) worry that the imagery will be co-opted to support a vicious political ideology. Curious as to its treatment in the ELCA, I took a look at the new and much-disputed Evangelical Lutheran Worship. I had three hymns in mind as test cases for the imagery of war...
One Little Word Subdues Him
Those of you in the ELCA who have been doing your denominational duty by working through the third installment of the sexuality study may have noticed that one of the members of task force was your new LF editor. I am a member no more; upon taking up this editorship I opted to withdraw. Given the already fragile nature of trust in such a venture, it seemed that a media rat like myself wouldn’t do anybody any good. Someone else was found to replace my demographic (“young, conservative, female, clergy” appear to be the four major requirements) and she will probably do a much better job than I did...
Abundant Death, Abundant Life
Search through any pastor’s library and you are likely to find a whole manner of books covering the various disciplines of pastoral ministry—biblical commentaries, church history, preaching, counseling, doctrine. But it is often the other books you find on the pastor’s shelf that gives insight you into the soul of the pastor...
The Certain Ambiguity of Catholicity
I am a member of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod because, like most Missouri-Synod Lutherans, it is the church body into which I was born. It is not all that surprising, even in this age of consumer-driven Christianity, that many folks still cling to the church of their birth. Inertia is a powerful thing. But why I continue to remain a part of this synod is more complex than simple inertia...
Church Breaks Your Heart
It has been said that the one great contribution of postmodernism to scholarship will be the autobiographical clause in the introduction. This is it. My associate Paul Sauer and I don’t believe in hidden agendas: our agendas are going to be in plain sight...