A warning about Evangelical language

One of our supporters is an early modern historian (a few still exist), who became alarmed at the evangelical tone of Advent study materials used in her LCMS congregation. She wrote to us, where her letter is given below.

Dear Lutherans: Stop Co-opting Evangelical Language

American Evangelicals are both numerous and loud—which means that their language for religion and faith has come to dominate the public sphere. Because this Evangelical rhetoric is so readily available, it is often the first language that we grasp for. It dominates “Christian” education, music, literature, art, and spirituality. But Lutherans—and other high-church and confessional Christians, such as Catholics, Orthodox, and Presbyterians—need to be careful about parroting such language. Not only does it erase our own unique confessional identity, but it also confuses us about the most important issues of faith and belief.

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A congregation is an embassy from the future

1 Cor 1:10-21

A Sermon for the Third Sunday after Epiphany

In our 1 Corinthians text for today, Paul is talking about all the quarreling among the Christians in Corinth. There were factions. There were those who say they belong to Paul, and others who belong to Apollos, and still others who belong to Peter, and those who belong to Christ. Things weren’t going well. It had become a matter of personalities.

Paul had to deal with that throughout his career because it had become evident that he wasn’t an impressive person. It seems he might have been an epileptic, or he might have stuttered, or he might have had bad eyesight.

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The Baptist points

John 1:29-42 

A Sermon for the Second Sunday of Epiphany

Have you heard of “The Nutshell Library”? It’s a collection of four miniature books, published in 1962, by Maurice Sendak. They are tiny pocket-sized books, perfect for small hands.

I was once given a pocket-sized New Testament, but the print was so small it was difficult to read, and I missed the Old Testament.

In the Bible there are, however, certain verses that are like the whole Bible in a nutshell. Our gospel text today has one such sentence, John 1:29: “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

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We three kings

Matthew 2:1-12

A sermon for Epiphany

We in the West celebrate Christmas from Christmas Day to Epiphany, January 6th, and then we say the Twelve Days of Christmas are over. But in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, they celebrate Christmas on January 6th, last Tuesday, what we call Epiphany.

In the Western Church this means that we forget about Epiphany, and that is really too bad because it is a major festival. The word itself means “shining forth,” and it is celebrated at this time because the days are growing longer. The light is coming back. We’re celebrating the fact that we are no longer in darkness. You know the great place in Isaiah 9:2 that we use at Christmas: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.” Over against the darkness, we celebrate the light.

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Truth = a person; grace = a person.

John 1:1-18

A Sermon for the Second Sunday after Christmas

In this remarkable prologue, the first 18 verses of the Gospel of John, one of the key points is something we call “grace.” What is grace? It can mean many things. “Grace” is a women’s name. When we watch Olympic ice-skaters, we are awed by their “grace.” When we say someone was “gracious” to us, we mean they were kind and thoughtful.

Perhaps the most well-known hymn is “Amazing Grace.” Despite the hymn’s popularity, it’s really quite vague about what grace is and is not.

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