The Dangers of Weaponized Intersectionality
I feel like I woke up in a burning building late last week. If the United States is not on the brink of political revolution, it is certainly already in the thick of an ideological one. And one of the…
Category Reformation21
Wonderfully Made
Studying our little newborn has caused us not only to say, “Aww!” but “Wow!” It is amazing that our son arrived all ready to go. He had perfect little fingers that had begun to grasp his umbilical cord even before…
Let’s Study Together
It’s six o’clock Wednesday evening. Your church’s mid-week Bible study starts in one hour, but you don’t feel like going. The trouble is, you can’t think of a fresh excuse and you don’t dare to say what you, (and several…
Present and Future Feasting
Note: This article is adapted from Eating and Drinking with God. The Lord’s Supper is the sacred occasion for eating and drinking with God. The sacrament is food and drink for our souls, real communion with our risen Savior. Yet even…
20 Posts from 2020
It hardly needs to be said: 2020 rode like a rollercoaster for most of us, and so far 2021 is looking more or less the same. And yet through it all, our Lord has remained faithful. As Simonetta reminded us (via…
The Other Pandemic
One pandemic leads to another. Because our lives are never compartmentalized, we can expect that the effects of a global epidemic will not be limited to the metrics of active cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. We know that natural disasters, such…
Rejoicing in the New Year
“Now greet the swiftly changing year with joy and penitence sincere; rejoice, rejoice, with thanks embrace another year of grace.”[1] This is how 17th-century Polish hymn-writer Jiří Třanovský (1592-1637, also known as Tranoscius) encouraged Christians to greet the year. Easy for…
Christian Duty in Times of Plague
Church history can be of great help to us as we try to understand our calling to faithful Christian living in the times in which we live. In particular, it is helpful to remind ourselves in the year 2020 that…
Who Does Gospel Ministry?
What is gospel ministry? It’s a deceptively simple question. So much of modern church life is described as a ministry of some sort, but biblically speaking there is rather narrow meaning to the idea. The equivalent of the English word…
A Tale of Two Advents
Early in my pastoral ministry, a thoughtful young man came with an interesting question while our congregation was in the midst of celebrating the Advent season. The question arose from a hymn sung during a Lord’s Day worship service: the…