When Dostoevsky died on February 9, 1881, he left behind novels that refuse to flatter the reader or simplify the human condition.
The Bible isn’t a set of moral examples or religious insights. It’s the record of God’s saving work, fulfilled in Christ, delivered now through words spoken and heard.
Ultimately, Scripture does not confront fear with commands. It confronts fear with a promise.

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My nonfiction reads took me into Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and various varieties of Protestantism. Some of my favorites didn’t fall into neat and tidy categories, such as Jordan Peterson and Richard Selzer. It was difficult to narrow the list down, but here are my 12 1/2 favorites of the year.
No doubt a few preachers cringe at the thought of "C and E" (Christmas and Easter) Christians showing up for Christmas Eve services...I must confess, when I preach on Christmas and Easter, I do not share this sentiment held by some of my peers.
Lutheran pastors have at least three sermons in these three days. The calendar allows preachers to wed together some important themes this Christmas. The Magnificat (conception), the birth account from Matthew 1, and the fuller account of Christ’s birth from Luke 2 give clear shape to the proclamation for the Feast of the Nativity. The Epistle readings, however, should also be considered as the Holy Spirit’s interpretation of the nativity.
It is the day before Christmas Eve. The trappings have taken their toll. Despite your valiant attempts to hold the Advent line, members of your congregation (and perhaps you, too) have grown weary of the Christmas season. One of the primary culprits, of course, is the ubiquitous Christmas playlist.
The death and resurrection of our Lord has indeed removed the power of all these things. But they remain for now, even so.
The Pope Leo X used the psalm description of a boar uprooting grape vines in a vineyard as a metaphor for what the upstart German monk had been doing at that backwater university.
Past, present, fututre converge in Advent. The historical coming of the Lord Jesus in the flesh, born of Mary to suffer and die for the world's redemption is indicated by having the Palm Suday account read on the First Sunday in Advent. All of the church year revolves around the cross.
We enter into the brief respite of the penitential season of Advent with the call “Gaudate!” The theme of rejoicing appears beautifully in our Epistle and in the Old Testament from Zephaniah.
It is a question that emerges from deep inside. It comes from mounting fears, nagging doubts, and unsettling uncertainties. It is the question asked by one who can no longer pretend that things will work out nicely and neatly. All thinking Christians face this question at some point, but few have the courage to give it voice.
Luther’s theology lets the believer in Christ dwell under the cerulean sky of God’s unchanging grace.
The Epistle aligns perfectly with the Advent proclamation of Christ’s coming (Mal. 3:2). God Himself is making ready the church for “the day of Jesus Christ” (1:6); He will make them “blameless for the day of Christ” (1:10).
For the next three Sundays, the Gospel readings put John the Baptist in the spotlight. This week it is his proclamation.