Where Have you Gone Samuel Nafzger?

February 8th, 2010

Everyone gets what Simon and Garfunkel meant when they sang, “ Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio/ A nation turns its lonely eyes to you?/ What’s that you say, Mrs. Robinson/ Joltin’ [I always thought it was “jumpin’.] Joe has left and gone away.”  Well we know where Joe has gone.  He’s buried at a cemetery in California, but where has Samuel Nafzger gone? Read the rest of this entry »

A Clown First Said it

February 1st, 2010

It was a clown that first helped me see there is more than a rift, more than a divide, there is a chasm between Reformed and Lutheran. Read the rest of this entry »

Higher Things and Lower Places

January 25th, 2010

First I get a joyful message from Higher Things that they are now a Recognized Service Organization of the LCMS (which means by the way they are in service to it).  Then I have faithful members passing on the good news.  Much like Garth Brook’s song I find these higher things highlight my lower places. Read the rest of this entry »

Thanksgiving: Not just for Turkeys anymore

January 18th, 2010

I was going to preach this for Thanksgiving but courage didn’t hang with conviction as is often the case with me. Read the rest of this entry »

The Delicate Dance between Ye and You

January 11th, 2010

What to do when you are completely wrong?  I didn’t realize this till the two comments below.  I could just remove this post, but the damage may have already been done.  If you haven’t read this post, just skip to the comments.  They are right.  I am wrong.  In the Greek it’s always you drink (plural), and literally it’s “you drink out of it all.”  It turns our my delicate dance is a polka or perhaps a mosh pit.

  I realize that thees and thous have as much chance of coming back where they’ve been lost as fins on cars do, but where they are let them remain particularly in the Divine Service.  As there is a rhythm in the versicles and responses, so there is a dance between ye and you. Read the rest of this entry »

A Tiger By the Tail

December 21st, 2009

This is another one of those stories that has words one is tempted to use as double entendres.  I will resist because the story is about what is not being said. Read the rest of this entry »

Theology is Everywhere

December 14th, 2009

A hospital is not a strange place to find theology.  Where men are suffering and dying is a good place to find theology.  What is remarkable to me is that the theology of the theologians is expressed so clearly. Read the rest of this entry »

Mamma Said

December 7th, 2009

“Mamma said there’d be days like this,”  I probably first heard that phrase when The Shirelles released the song in 1961 but I don’t remember hearing it till 1976.  It was March and I was in the mountains of New Mexico on a Ranger training exercise. Read the rest of this entry »

A Mourning Person

November 30th, 2009

People will usually describe themselves as either a morning or a night person.  The Lord doesn’t care for as the hymn says, “Day and night are both alike to Thee.”  Some people do, however, care.  Lord help you, and I don’t mean this in a frivolous manner if you are night pastor in morning country.  People who get up with the chickens think this is the only way to be.  But whether you’re like the morning or night you’re still a person.  It’s a different manner when it comes to being a mourning person.  These are the only kind that rightly value the ministry. Read the rest of this entry »

It started with the goddess

November 23rd, 2009

It started with the self-proclaimed “Digital Goddess” Kim Komando.  It was exacerbated by sports commentators saying this or that player was a “god.”  It burst into flames when the PBS cook referred to another as the “goddess of flambeau.”

Read the rest of this entry »