God can handle grief, rage, and cries for justice. God can handle the victim who cannot yet forgive. God can handle the prayer that comes out jagged and wounded. The good news is that God is holy and merciful enough to handle all our prayers.
But while scholars are right to focus on the bond between Martin and Hans, the evidence of Martin’s own words suggests their relationship may not have been as troubled as some suppose. For Hans Luther was not a cartoon villain but a normal human being attempting to make his way in the world and raise his children to the best of his ability.
Jesus offers something infinitely better. He tells us to put down our gavel—not because sin isn't real, but because the only Judge who has the right to condemn is the very One who was condemned for us.

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Pentecost is a flashback. It drives us back to the past. It also propels us forward into the future.
I trust that because of the gospel, God will continue to mend what I, in my sin, continue to break.
1517 would not exist without the leadership, friendship, and faithfulness of Pastor Ron Hodel.
Jesus does not put us on trial and make us pay for our own sin, but he, himself, is put on trial in our place.
So, we pray. Not just in times of need, but we pray at all times. Because this is part of what it means to be saved.
Jesus opens for us a way to walk through suffering and to sing our song of salvation as we talk to our heavenly Father.
Make no mistake, sinners are in fact being pursued by a most hideous beast called sin, death, and the devil, unleashed and striking continuously.
What we have in our reading is a picture of how God deals with a lack of understanding.
If you sit where Joseph sits, then you also face the choice that Joseph faced. Do you respond with vengeance?
Today, Jesus comes as your Good Shepherd. You recognize His voice.
The days after Easter are strange. We are slowly returning to our patterns of Church life and family life after the festivities of Easter. Yet, we need to be careful we do not become too comfortable.
On every page, in every theme, in every major character and every major plot twist, we are invited to see God’s unfolding work to make all things new and whole in Jesus.