This newsletter article, a reworking of a past blogpost, appeared in my congregation's July newsletter. My sermon for the 4th of July also touches on church/state issues. The 4th of July this year falls on a Sunday. Though there will be flags waving outside of houses, and parades with red, white, and blue processions, andContinue reading “Christian Worship on the 4th of July”
Category Archives: Liturgy
Preaching and Plagiarism
To what extent is there an expectation that a preacher's sermon is original work? Surely the expectation is that the preacher proclaims the Good News of Jesus Christ. But is there also an expectation that the words of the proclamation are original words composed by the person speaking them? If sermons are borrowed from anotherContinue reading “Preaching and Plagiarism”
Funerals: For the Living or for the Dead?
"Funerals are not for the dead, but for the living." That's a popular sentiment, and one which I've uttered many times. After all, at the funeral we speak words of comfort to those who are mourning, and words of hope to the living that death is not the end of the story but simply oneContinue reading “Funerals: For the Living or for the Dead?”
Martin Luther on Prayer
In a letter to his barber, Martin Luther recommends that Christians pray the Ten Commandments, Apostles’ Creed and Lord’s Prayer. Yet beyond reciting these traditional texts, he suggests that after each line or phrase of these texts we meditate upon them in a “four-fold garland” method of praying: Instruction: seek what these words have toContinue reading “Martin Luther on Prayer”
Liturgy, Copyrights, and the Internet, revisited
Two years ago I was denied permission to publish an edited version of Responsive Prayer from Evangelical Lutheran Worship (ELW) on my blog, and was forced to take down the order of prayer that I had been posting for several months (see past post, Daily Prayer Permission Denied – note that some links in thatContinue reading “Liturgy, Copyrights, and the Internet, revisited”
The Lutheran Zephyr 