One great thing about our post-denominational age is that it has opened up opportunities to make common cause with other Lutherans who, despite their differences and eccentricities, can agree on some of the most important things.
Pride builds identities that leave no room for grace.
We can willingly admit the fact that we're just like tax collectors and thieves.

All Articles

All of my theological endeavoring will not squeeze one more ounce of grace from God.
This is not a plea for us to be given the strength to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. It is our helpless cry when boots – straps and all - slip off the edge of temptation’s cliff.
This is an excerpt from Vocation: The Setting for Human Flourishing written by Michael Berg (1517 Publishing, 2021). Now available for preorder.
The petition not to be led into temptation is found in just the right place within the seven petitions.
Though envy whispers to us that peace can only be found by “keeping up,” Jesus whispers to us a better word: “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.”
Jesus lives to intercede. So we needn’t bring him our feigned righteousness or our faux rehabilitation.
If we want to see evidence of our Father’s answer to the fifth petition, we need only to look at the cross and the empty tomb.
In Defense of Christian Ritual is now available for purchase from 1517 Publishing
There is joy in Lent, but it is the kind of joy that comes in being made whole.
Is it possible to take a cyber approach to the season of Lent? I do not think so.
In schools and on barstools and in delis and where two or three gather, your Savior turns you loose to encounter those who are delightful and loveable.
Even though the horn of plenty on our table is there as the fruit of our labor, that is also a gift of God’s grace