St. Titus 2024

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We do not worship saints, nor pray to them. These things clearly contradict God’s Word. We do, however, remember the saints and give them honor. The Augsburg Confession says,

Concerning the cult of the saints our people teach that the saints are to be remembered so that we may strengthen our faith when we see how they experienced grace and how they were helped by faith. Moreover, it is taught that each person, according to his or her calling, should take the saints’ good works as an example….

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There is no cause for anger

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In his book The Sermon on the Mount: The Church’s First Statement of the Gospel, David P. Scaer draws out the true teaching of Jesus, obscured by textual assertions that accommodated man’s tendency to justify himself: there is no place for anger in the life of a disciple of Jesus.

“One who is angry has taken to himself the prerogative that belongs to God alone. The phrase “without cause” does not belong to the original reading. Even if there is a cause for anger, anger must be put aside among the followers of Jesus. There is no cause for anger. Though anger is the prerogative of God alone, in his work of reconciliation in Jesus he has set aside this anger. This makes the offense of anger even more repugnant. By becoming angry the one who claims to belong to Jesus and to know his mind takes an attitude diametrically opposed to God, who is no longer angry. The refusal to be reconciled is the sign that the person no longer belongs to Jesus and from God’s point of view is no longer a member of the community. Here is where excommunication becomes operative.”
— David P. Scaer

Jeffrey Gibbs’ excellent article “The Myth of Righteous Anger” expands on this and is highly recommended.

Epiphany 2, 2025

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Our minds contemplate grievances and dreams, seeking our own will.

We are called to contemplate Christ and seek to be conformed to His will.

We become what we contemplate. We become what we adore. If we gaze on images of uncleanness, we are conformed to that image. It defiles, and renders us incapable of genuine love.

We become what we contemplate. We become what we adore. So what is occupying your mind? We naturally have many scattered thoughts held in the mind: things to do, things to buy, bills to pay, the needs of the day. We cannot spend the whole day reading Scripture and occupied in formal prayer. Yet the needs of the day will overwhelm us, distract us, conform us to their own image – if they are done separated from the contemplation of Christ….

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The Baptism of Our Lord 2025

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Descending into the waters, the sinless One becomes sinner. For that was the content of the water. All the transgressions of all those coming to John, they were all in the water. And in that water, too, were the drowned bodies of Pharaoh’s army. And the sad horror of the infants Pharaoh cast there. The stench of corruption from Noah’s flood. The blood of the Nile. The blood of Abel. The rotting core of the fruit Eve tasted. It’s all there, in water unfit for bathing….

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YHWH Saves

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Do you not see your own peril, that the power of your own sinful flesh will rule you unless it is brought under subjection to the Name? And Satan comes against you, “in battle array like Goliath” [Müller]. How did David meet the giant? He said, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you” [1 Sam. 17:45f]. This David had fought with wild animals, and vanquished them, killing lion and bear. But he goes out not in his own name, not in his own strength, not in his own power. He goes out in the Name of the LORD, the Name YHWH….

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Best Music of 2024

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These are my favorite albums released in 2024:

  1. Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 (Berlin Philharmonic, Sir Simon Rattle)

  2. MoonDial (Pat Metheny)

  3. Earthcycle (Orchestra of the Swan)

  4. Études Mélodiques (Marie Awadis)

  5. Arium (Thom Brennan)

  6. Can I Tell You Something? (Mark Lettieri)

  7. Stay By My Side (Gerard Cousins)

  8. LIFE (Extended) (Mari Samuelsen)

  9. Bach (Alexandre Tharaud)

  10. Brisk - single (Aukai)

  11. Upgraded (soundtrack; Isom Innis)

  12. Solastalgia (Erik Wøllo)

  13. Blurring the Edges (Data Rebel)

The First Sunday after Christmas 2024

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Outside the temple there is no peace. You have challenges in your family. You feel arthritis settling in, or some other part of you is aging. Friends turn against you. Irrational people will give you no peace.

But here, in Jesus …

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Glory to God in the Highest

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In many and various ways, God spoke to those people of old, sending them prophets and priests, wise men and shepherds, calling them back to Himself. Yet even the most pious and godly of those men and women were sinful at their core. They were afflicted with a mortality no medicine could cure, no science could solve….

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