Category Sermons
They in Glory Shine
Note: I preached this sermon today for the commemoration of All Saints, which we transfer from November 1 to the following Sunday. Lutherans make a rather peculiar use of this festival, for two reasons: First, our approach to the cult of the saints was not total rejection but modification. For this reason many Lutheran churches […]
Sermon Playback: Authority
I preached this sermon on September 28, 2014, on the Gospel for this coming weekend. And it is easy, too easy, to think of this parable as being about sinners who change their ways. The prostitutes and tax collectors believed John, and were baptized, and then they stopped doing their sins. But that’s not what […]
Sermon: Holy Cross Day
I preached this sermon on September 14, 2014. Now, as I mentioned earlier we are not a society that is very interested in wisdom. The church in Corinth seems to have been divided over the question of who had true wisdom, which is not something we’re likely to lose friends over. We are, on the […]
Chicago Diarist: Sic Transit Gloria Mundi
(I wrote this in January, 2007) My literary production, such as it is (and as far as I may use the term without self-mockery), is highly dependent on the CTA. Back when I still tried to write poetry, a conversation about a dead man overheard on a bus furnished the matter of one of the […]
Sermon Playback: Speaking of Satan
I preached this sermon three years ago on this weekend’s text (Matthew 16): And for Christians, this may be our special temptation and our special sin. It is to refuse Jesus as he offers himself to us. It is to look for or hope for or expect a different Jesus than the one who comes […]
Preaching Notebook: Flesh and Blood
I was stunned and saddened to see this post from Freddie deBoer on Sunday: My day-to-day existence has become entirely unmanageable, and I fear for my health and safety. I do not have much of a plan at this point other than to get checked in. When I am back out I will try to […]
Sermon: The God of the Center
(I preached this sermon on August 15, 2010–the Feast of St. Mary, the Mother of Our Lord–at Wicker Park Lutheran Church in Chicago) Sisters and brothers, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. On Friday the great film critic and now equally great blogger Roger Ebert offered […]
Chicago Diarist: Home
(I wrote this in July, 2008, shortly after my internship at Bethel-Imani Lutheran church ended) Early last year, after buying yet another friend a copy of Gilead to see him on his journey away from Chicago, I read the opening on the train. I made myself stop after this: I don’t know how many times people have […]
Sermon Rewind: No Strings Attached
I preached this sermon three years ago this week, on Jesus feeding the multitude (Matthew 14)
Brutally Ordinary Things 