God makes us pure saints by planting us back in the earth we imagined we needed to escape.
Salvation is not merely to be put in “safety” but to be put into Christ.
Bringing your family to church to receive “the one thing needful” (Luke 10:42) in Word and Sacrament honors and pleases God.

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This is an excerpt from the introduction of “Common Places in Christian Theology: A Curated Collection of Essays from Lutheran Quarterly,” edited by Mark Mattes (1517 Publishing, 2023).
Sunshine and rain, food and harvests, family, friends, and health, love and joy. All these things and more he gives, not because of what you do or don’t do, but because he is generous and gracious.
Some explanations are better than others, but they remain our explanations—except if we had some perspective from outside, above, and behind nature.
Unprompted, without any warning, for no reason at all, without any instigation say, "I love you." And that will wash over your parents like a beautiful absolution.
I hate to break it to you, but "are" is not an action verb. "Are" is a being verb.
If you interpret James, as most do, as an encouragement toward proving your faith by your works and then say it is your "favorite" then you are proclaiming that your favorite thing about the Christian faith is the practical outworking, the proving your faith by your works.
When I finished this book, I loved the Bible, and the Bible’s author, even more. And I can’t imagine a better endorsement than that.
Ash Wednesday's purpose is not to motivate our resolve to redouble our efforts to do better.
Zephaniah has given us something more visceral to help us understand the love of God: the sound of salvation.
This week we will take a closer look at God's love in Scripture.
This sermon was originally given at Luther Seminary chapel on May 20, 1986.
Rightly distinguishing between law and gospel, as Paul helps us see in 2 Corinthians 3, is, quite literally, a matter of life and death.